Quantification of polybrominated diphenylethers in oil produced by pyrolysis of flame retarded plastic

摘要

In recent years, there has been extensive research into using pyrolysis to convert toxicudbrominated plastics into safe, bromine free fuels. However, there has been little investigation ofudthe polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) that are present in the pyrolysis oils. PBDEs areudbrominated flame retardants that are extremely toxic and are difficult to analyse owing to theudexistence of 209 different congeners. In this work, the authors have investigated the PBDEsudpresent in the pyrolysis oil of high impact polystyrene which contained decabromodiphenyl etherudas a flame retardant. The plastic was pyrolysed in a fluidised bed reactor and the resulting oil wasudsubjected to a rigorous clean-up procedure to remove interfering compounds before the PBDEsudwere quantified using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. It was found that the mostudprominent PBDEs in the oil were 3-monoBDE, 4-monoBDE, 3,49-diBDE, 3,39,4-triBDE andud2,29,4,49,5,69-hexaBDE. The lesser brominated PBDEs were more prevalent than the more heavilyudbrominated PBDEs.