Determination of Trace Elements in Sediment Reference Materials by Monochromatic X-ray Excitation X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometry

Effect of Long-time Heating for Elements from Flame Retardants in Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene and Polycarbonate Resin Disks

The effect of long-time heating for elements from flame retardants (FRs) such as dechlorane plus (DP), tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA), triphenyl phosphate (TPhP) and antimony trioxide (Sb₂O₃) in both acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) and polycarbonate (PC) resin disks was examined in the present study. The heating temperature by a drying oven was 80°C, which was expected to be a harder environment than that of usual dump site to discard electric and electronic equipment, and the long-time heating was carried out for up to 722 days. As a result, the increases for both ether (C-O-C) and ketone (C=O) groups and the decrease of C=C double bond as well as methylene group (=CH₂) were found for an ABS resin disk by fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometry, which was expected to result in an increase of mass of the disk up to ca. 4% due to oxidation during the long-time heating. The changes in concentrations for bromine (Br), chlorine (Cl), phosphorous (P) and Sb, which were originated elements from FRs contained, were also evaluated by energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (ED-XRF) spectrometry and the decreases in concentrations of ca. 5% in ABS resin disk were observed which could be almost explained by increasing ca. 4% mass of the disk. On the contrary, the mass and chemical form of a PC resin disk as well as the concentrations of elements contained did not change during the long-time heating. From these results, it could be considered that most of the elements from DP, TBBPA, TPhP and Sb₂O₃ contained as FRs in the ABS and PC resin disks examined in the present study were not lost during the long-time heating, even though the color, shape, mass and chemical form of ABS resin disk were changed.