Solid phase microextraction to concentrate volatile products from thermal degradation of polymers

Solid phase microextraction (SPME) was used to analyse the products evolved in the thermal degradation of polypropylene (PP) which was used as a model polymer. The degradation was performed under nitrogen at 470 °C using polydimethylsiloxane and carboxen/polydimethylsiloxane as the fibres for the product pre-concentration. The evolved degradation products were identified by infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy (GC/MS). More than 30 evolved products associated with alkenes (61.0%), alkanes (33.0%) and alkadienes (4.3%), were identified. In agreement with the literature, evolved products such as 2,4-dimethyl-1-heptene, n-pentane, 2-pentene, propylene, 2-methyl-1-pentene, 2,4,6-trimethyl-1-nonene, etc., were detected from the polypropylene thermal degradation. The results suggest that the SPME technology offers important factors such as, rapid analysis and great efficiency in the pre-concentration of evolved products from the thermal degradation of polymers.