Polymer and Industrial Applications

Sewn Hall University, South Orange, NJ, USA 12,1 INTRODUCTION 

The usual means of identifying and quantifying the level of these additives in polymer samples is performed by dissolution of the polymer in a solvent, followed by precipitation of the material. The additives in turn remain in the Supernatant liquid. The different solubilites of the additives, high reactivity, low stability, low concentrations and possible co-precipitation with the polymer may pose problems and lead to inconclusive results. Another sample pretreatment method is the use of Soxhlet extraction and reconcentration before analysis, although this method is very time consuming, and is still limited by solubility dependence. Other approaches include the use of supercritical fluids to extract the additives from the polymer and Subsequent analysis of the extracts by microcolumn LC (2). 

Multidimensional chromatography has also been applied for the analysis of industrial chemicals and related samples. Industrial samples which have been analyzed by multidimensional chromatography include coal tar, antiknock additives in gasoline (3), light hydrocarbons (4, 5), trihaloalkanes and trihaloalkenes in industrial solvents (6-8), soot and particulate extracts, and various industrial chemicals that might be present in gasoline and oil samples. 

In this present chapter, the applications of multidimensional chromatography using various types of coupled techniques for the analysis of industrial and polymer samples, and polymer additives, are described in detail. The specific applications are organized by technique and a limited amount of detail is given for the various instrumental setups, since these are described elsewhere in other chapters of this volume. 

High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is an excellent technique for sample preseparation prior to GC injection since the separation efficiency is high, analysis time is short, and method development is easy. An LC-GC system could be fully automated and the selectivity characteristics of both the mobile and stationary 

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