Pyrolysis-GC-HRMS: an application for the identification and quantification of organic plastic additives

National audience; Environmental pollution from plastics and microplastics (MPs) is a threat to the environment and wildlife on multiple aspects regarding exposition of different hazards. One of them is due to the chemical impact of the organic plastic additives (OPAs). Various additives can be added to polymers during the manufacturing process to modify and improve their physical properties. The analysis of OPAs has shown a growing importance since their use has become controversial as some of the additives were found to be toxic to marine organism and humans. In order to have a better understanding of the chemical impact of those additives, it is important to identify and, ideally quantify the additives included in the polymeric matrices. The analysis of OPAs and polymers is an analytical challenge due to the diversity of their chemical composition, the fact that they are most of the time mixed, and the numerous steps needed for the sample preparation with “conventional” approaches such as solvent extraction (SE). Thus, implementing easy and quick screening analysis methods, able to analyse plastic additives, have become a focus of interest. Pyrolysis coupled to a gas chromatography and a high-resolution mass spectrometer (Py-GC-HRMS) is an analytical tool that enable a relatively quick and easy analysis. This technique minimize or even remove the steps for sample preparation, limiting their potential contamination prior the analysis.The goal of this study is to develop a method using Py-GC-HRMS to identify and, if possible, quantify OPAs included in a polymeric matrix. A single method for the analysis of various selected plastic additives has been implemented and benefits the constitution of a database in GC/MS-Orbitrap with a wide variety of plastic additives. This method has shown its ability to characterise several additives is plastic packaging samples. The development of the quantitative method is still on going.