Identification of Polymer Additives

Polymer additive identification and analysis.

Intertek laboratories offers a comprehensive analytical approach for the chemical identification of polymer additives:

To begin the process, the polymer is extracted using an appropriate solvent. The selection of the correct solvent for a particular polymer is essential for the successful extraction of polymer additives. Intertek MSG has huge experience in this area. The polymer extract is then analysed by LC-MS and GC-MS using Intertek MSG's in-house database of 80 polymer additives in addition to the NIST 2008 library of GC-MS spectra (containing more than 191000 spectra).

Polymer additives have different chemical and physical properties. LC-MS and GC-MS are complementary analytical techniques, their combined use maximises the chance of a successful analysis. LC-MS is better for high molecular weight and more polar additives. GC-MS is better for low molecular weight and less polar additives.

In one example, an LC-MS chromatogram of a polypropylene extract sample contained the additives dioctylphthalate, Tinuvin 312, Irganox 1010 and Irgafos 168. Dioctylphthalate is a plasticiser, Tinuvin 312 is a UV absorber, Irganox 1010 is an antioxidant and Irgafos 168 is a processing stabiliser.

Intertek offers on-line pyrolysis-GC-MS of polymer chips as a quick low cost procedure to get preliminary data on polymer additives. This technique does not have the comprehensive scope of the solvent extraction-LC-MS/GC-MS procedure.

Contact us to see how Intertek can help your organization with Identification of Polymer Additives.