Analysis of acrylonitrile, 1,3-butadiene, and related compounds in acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene copolymers for kitchen utensils and children's toys by headspace gas chromatography/mass spectrometry

Abstract

A headspace gas chromatography/mass spectrometry method was developed for the simultaneous determination of the residual levels of acrylonitrile (AN), 1,3-butadiene (1,3-BD), and their related compounds containing propionitrile (PN) and 4-vinyl-1-cyclohexene (4-VC) in acrylonitrilebutadiene-styrene (ABS) copolymers for kitchen utensils and children's toys. A sample was cut into small pieces, then N,N-dimethylacetamide and an internal standard were added in a sealed headspace vial. The vial was incubated for 1 h at 90°C and the headspace gas was analyzed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. The recovery rates of the analytes were 93.3-101.8% and the coefficients of variation were 0.3-6.5%. In ABS copolymers, the levels were 0.3-50.4 μg/g for AN, ND-4.5 μg/g for PN, 0.06-1.58 μg/g for 1,3-BD, and 1.1-295 μg/g for 4-VC. The highest level was found for 4-VC, which is a dimer of 1,3-BD, and the next highest was for AN, which is one of the monomers of the ABS copolymer. Furthermore, the method was also applied to acrylonitrile-styrene (AS) copolymers and polystyrenes (PS) for kitchen utensils, and nitrile-butadiene rubber (NBR) gloves. In AS copolymers, AN and PN were detected at 16.8-54.5 and 0.8-6.9 μg/g, respectively. On the other hand, the levels in PS and NBR samples were all low.