Abstract
HBCD is widely used brominated flame retardant, which is increasingly reported in the environment. In the study, the determinations of three HBCD isomers, α-, β-, and γ-HBCD in plastic products by LC-MS/MS method using respective labeled compounds as internal standard were developed. Plastic products included polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polystyrene (PS), and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS). Soxhlet extraction with n-hexane-isopropanol (1:1, v/v) was used, and extraction efficiency was confirmed to be satisfying by analyzing bromine by using XRF before and after extraction. Moreover, LC and MS/MS conditions were optimized. The limits of quantitation of 0.01, 0.005, and 0.005 mg kg−1 were calculated for three HBCD isomers, respectively. Using the established methods, HBCD emerged in two PS products of 15 commercially available plastic products in China. A higher proportion of α-HBCD in two PS products was compared with that of commercial HBCD mixtures, indicating that γ-HBCD possibly isomerized to α-HBCD by heating processes to incorporate the commercial formulation into plastic products.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This study was supported by the Research Project of General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection, and Quarantine of PRC (2009IK139 and 2010IK176).
Notes
*The transition reactions were used for quantitative analysis.
*∑HBCD: α + β + γ-HBCD.