Identification of the minor components of Great Lakes DE-71™ technical mix by means of 1H NMR and GC/MS

The production of technical penta-BDE products such as Great Lakes DE-71™ is not a clean process but, instead, gives complex mixtures of various BDE congeners. This study reports the verification of the structures of many of the BDE congeners in Great Lakes DE-71™ using 1H NMR and/or GC/MS. In total, 24 BDE congeners, including nine (tetra-BDEs 42, 48, 51, and 91; penta-BDEs 102, 104, and 119; hexa-BDEs 149 and 155) which had not been reported previously, were identified in this technical mix by 1H NMR. The quantification of these congeners was realized by two independent methods: 1H NMR spectroscopy in combination with HRGC/LRMS and isotopic dilution and HRGC/HRMS analysis. The values obtained compare well between methods, and with data produced in earlier studies.