Mass spectrometry as a useful tool for the analysis of stabilizers in polymer materials

•Analysis of polymer stabilizers is a field of growing interest.•A comprehensive review of MS techniques for analysis of polymer stabilizers.•Strategies for direct analysis and analysis after extraction are compared.•MS techniques for rapid qualitative screening of stabilizers are presented.•MS techniques for surface imaging and depth profiling of stabilizers are discussed.

The potential of mass spectrometry (MS) for the analysis of stabilizers in plastics materials is reviewed, discussing the strong and weak points of the different techniques. Direct analysis of plastics samples without any, or with only minor, preparation steps is possible with MS techniques. Here, the primary focus lies in the fast identification of stabilizers in plastics, which is a useful tool for screening larger sets of samples. Also, the possibility of spatially-resolved surface analysis by MS is discussed.