Publication detail

Flame Retardants and their Occurrence in the Terrestrial Ecosystem

CHYTIL, V. VÁVROVÁ, M.

Original Title

Flame Retardants and their Occurrence in the Terrestrial Ecosystem

Type

lecture

Language

English

Original Abstract

This study was focused on the analysis of four compounds from a brominated flame retardants group, namely pentabromoethylbenzene, hexabromocyclododecane, hexabromobenzene and tetrabromobisphenol A. Matrices were represented by four soil samples and four seats of fire samples. In addition, bisphenol A was also examined. As a first step, the process of extraction of the analytes from matrices was optimized. Three different extraction techniques were tested (pressurized solvent extraction, microwave-assisted extraction and ultrasound-assisted extraction). The next step was to verify the stability of target compounds in strongly acidic conditions and to optimize the clean-up of an extract by a column chromatography using different types of sorbents and eluting solvents. On the basis of several experiments, the gas chromatography with electron capture detection (GC-ECD) was chosen as an appropriate analytical method for the determination of brominated flame retardants. Bisphenol A was investigated by the gas chromatography with mass spectrometric detection (GC-MS). Phenolic analytes were derivatized before their final analytical determination. The most abundant analyte was the hexabromocyclododecane which was quantified in all matrices in the range of 7.018-81.88 ng/g dry weight. On the contrary, tetrabromobisphenol A was not proven in any of analyzed samples. The ash from the Brandýs nad Labem restaurant fire contained the highest amount of all target compounds (total 118.2 ng/g dw). The least contaminated place was the forest burnt-out area near Velmovice (hexabromocyclododecane only, 7.843 ng/g dw). As for soil samples, greater concentrations were found in the area near the industrial site in Chropyně, where a store of plastic materials burnt down in 2011. The analysis of the seat of fire samples showed that compounds of interest are more abundant in ash than in a soil part (some of them were mixtures of ash and soil). All measured concentrations fall within a range in which these analytes are present at many other places in the world (tenths to tens ng/g dw).

Keywords

bisphenol A, brominated flame retardants, gas chromatography, hexabromobenzene, hexabromocyclododecane, pentabromoethylbenzene, seat of fire analysis, soil analysis, tetrabromobisphenol A

Authors

CHYTIL, V.; VÁVROVÁ, M.

Released

2. 9. 2015

Publisher

Brno University of Technology

Location

Brno, Czech Republic

Pages from

52

Pages to

53

Pages count

2

BibTex

@misc{BUT117761,
  author="Václav {Chytil} and Milada {Vávrová}",
  title="Flame Retardants and their Occurrence in the Terrestrial Ecosystem",
  year="2015",
  pages="52--53",
  publisher="Brno University of Technology",
  address="Brno, Czech Republic",
  note="lecture"
}