Polymer waste, additives Flame retardants

An additional technique that has been found useful in analysis of the composition of polymers and blends is liquid chromatography. Pasch and Rode used the critical point of adsorption of the least polar component of a blend to determine the liquid chromatographic conditions for separating blends of polymethacrylates into components (50). High pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) in combination with mass spectroscopy was used to analyze the components of an epoxy resin (51). HPLC has also been used with a precipitation-redissolution technique to separate polymer molecular weights for several polymers as a shorter technique compared to SEC (52). Reverse-phase liquid chromatography with UV detection was useful in qualitative determination of brominated flame retardants in polymeric waste materials (53). 

Flame retardant additives can also modify the types of products that are released during incineration of waste polymers and in this way the flame retardants are contaminants which also affect the quaternary recycling of polymers (that is, the incineration of polymers to recover heat). For example, the thermal degradation of polyurethane, PU, can produce a complex mixture of products. However, in the presence of a common phosphorus-based flame retardant (such as ammonium polyphosphate), aniline (which is quite toxic) becomes a relevant volatile combustion product. ... 

Schlummer M, Brandi F, Maurer A, van Eldik R. Analysis of flame retardant additives in polymer fractions of waste of electric and electronic equipment (WEEE) by means of HPLC-UV/MS and GPC-HPLC-UV. J Chromatogr A 2005 1064(1) 39-51. 

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