Quantitative determination of volatiles in non-volatile matrices

An intergrated vacuum distillation gas chromatographic method has ben developed for measuring total volatiles content and absolute levels of specific volatiles in polymers and other relatively non-volatile matrices. The method is very versatile and is used for the simultanoues determination of moisture and organic volatiles over the range 0.0005% to 40% by weight with a precision of 4% relative The lower limit of detection for hydrocarbon volatiles is 1 ppb* with flame ionization detection. Specific applications to the quantitative determination of hydrocarbon volatiles in high-density polyethylene (HDPE), moisture and hexane in atactic polypropylene, and a trace odorant in HDPE are presented.