Analysis of Brominated Flame Retardants PBDE

Keywords BFRs PBDE deca-BDE MID PTV on-column EPA 1614 Introduction 

BDEs are among the most important and most widely used flame retardants in a range of different industrial and consumer products. They are found worldwide in practically all types of matrices moving them into the focus of legislation resulting in a ban for certain BDE congeners (European Parliament and of the Council of the European Union, 2003). The EU directive 2003/11/EC prohibits the use of penta-BDE and octa-BDE for the member states of the European community (European Parliament, 2003). 

As a result, BDEs have received rising interest in recent years by the analytical community (Stapleton et cd., 2008). The by far most efficient analysis technique is high resolution GC-MS using isotope dilution technique according to EPA 1614 for highest precision quantification with highest significance (Krumwiede and Hiibschmann, 2006). 

GC Method System Thermo Scientific TRACE GC Ultra 

MID window no. Reference masses (PFK) Target masses MID cycle time (s) 

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Section 4.30 Analysis of Brominated Flame Retardants PBDE... 

The analysis of some brominated flame retardants, such as TBBPA, HBCDs and the higher brominated PBDEs, is a relatively new challenge for most analytical laboratories. Special emphasis must be given to the need of an adequate Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC) protocol, which is necessary for the reliable analysis of these environmental contaminants at trace levels (Papke et al. 2004). Literature on the analysis of brominated flame retardants in different matrices, paying special attention to new analytical developments and quality assurance requirements, has recently been reviewed by Covaci et al. (2007). In addition, a recent paper of Kierkegaard et al. (2009) discusses the problems and challenges of the environmental analysis of the higher brominated compounds. 

Another MS/MS application for ion trap mass spectrometry involves the analysis of polybrominated flame retardants (PBDEs). As a result of regulations promulgated during the past flve years, such as the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) [61] and other similar programs, there has been a determined effort to decrease the use of brominated flame retardants in the manufacture of consumer products. The chemical structure for a typical PBDE is illustrated in Eigure 15.42. 

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