Determination of Additives in Polymers and Rubbers is designed as a practical text for use in the laboratories of the plastic producer and user industries and by others such as universities and institutions who are concerned with problems associated with additives and adventitious impurities in polymers.

It is now about 30 years since the author wrote his first book on this subject and much has happened in the field since then.

For example powerful new analytical tools have been made available to the chemist by a combination of various chromatographic techniques with methods of identifying separated additives and their degradation products by techniques based on infrared and mass spectrometry. In particular supercritical fluid chromatography combined with mass spectrometry has come to the fore. Combinations of polymer pyrolysis with gas chromatography with mass spectrometric identification of the pyrolysis products is throwing new light on what happens to antioxidants and other polymer additives during polymer processing and a products life. Similarly evolved gas analysis and then thermogravimetry and dynamic scanning calorimetry is proving very useful in antioxidant loss studies.

Determination of Additives in Polymers and Rubbers is an up-to-date coverage of the present state of knowledge on the subject of polymer additive systems and as such should be extremely useful to workers in the field.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 Direct Determination of Additives in Polymers and Rubbers

1.1 Infrared Spectroscopic Methods
1.2 Ultraviolet Spectroscopy
1.3 Raman Spectroscopy
1.4 Mass Spectrometry
1.5 X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS)
1.6 Thermal Methods of Analysis
1.7 Vapour Phase Ultraviolet Spectroscopy
1.8 X-Ray Fluorescence Analysis
1.9 Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy

2 Extraction Techniques for Additives in Polymers

2.1 Introduction
2.2 Solvent Extraction
2.3 Fractional Precipitation
2.4 Fractional Extraction
2.5 Separation by Diffusion Methods
2.6 Dialysis or Electrodialysis
2.7 Vacuum Thermal Displacement Extraction Method
2.8 Solvent Extraction - Infrared Spectrometry
2.9 Solvent Extraction - Ultraviolet Spectroscopy
2.10 Solvent Extraction - Visible Spectroscopy
2.11 Solvent Extraction Spectrofluorimetry
2.12 Solvent Extraction - Mass Spectrometry
2.13 Solvent Extracts - Electrochemical Methods
2.14 Chronopotentiometry
2.15 Anodic Voltammetry
2.16 Solvent Extraction - Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (NMR)

3 Liquid Chromatography

3.1 Introduction
3.2 Chromatographic Detectors
3.3 Antioxidants
3.4 Oligomers
3.5 Acrylic Acid Monomer
3.6 Acrylamide Monomer
3.7 Amines
3.8 Plasticisers
3.9 Additive Mixtures
3.10 High Performance Liquid Chromatography - Infrared Spectroscopy
3.11 Gel Permeation Chromatography

4 Gas Chromatography

4.1 Antioxidants
4.2 Volatile Compounds
4.3 Monomers
4.4 Oligomers
4.5 Hindered Amine Light Stabilisers (HALS)
4.6 Plasticisers
4.7 Organic Peroxides
4.8 Rubber Antidegradants
4.9 Miscellaneous Polymer Additives
4.10 Identification of Additives by a Combination of GC and Infrared Spectroscopy
4.11 Identification of Additives by a Combination of GC and Mass Spectrometry
4.12 Pyrolysis GC

5 Thin-Layer Chromatography

5.1 Experimental
5.2 Antioxidants
5.3 Ultraviolet Stabilisers
5.4 Plasticisers
5.5 Organotin Stabilisers
5.6 Epoxy and Other Heat Stabilisers
5.7 Optical Whiteners
5.8 Amine and Phenolic Antioxidants and Antidegradants, Guanidines and Accelerators in Rubber
5.9 Miscellaneous Additives
5.10 Combination of Thin-Layer Chromatography with Infrared Spectroscopy

6 Paper Gel Permeation Chromatography

7 Supercritical Fluid Chromatography

7.1 Antioxidants
7.2 Oligomers
7.3 Supercritical Fluid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (SFC-MS)

8 Headspace Analysis - Volatiles

8.1 Volatiles
8.2 Monomers
8.3 Oligomers
8.4 Miscellaneous

9 Thermal Methods

9.1 Pyrolysis-Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry
9.2 Evolved Gas Analysis

10 Determination of Water

11 Determination of Metals

11.1 Destructive Techniques
11.2 Non-destructive Methods

12 Non-metallic Elements

12.1 Instrumentation
12.2 Acid Digestions of Polymers
12.3 X-ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy
12.4 Antec 9000 Nitrogen/Sulfur Analyser

Appendix 1

About the Author
Roy Crompton was Head of the polymer analysis research department of a major international polymer producer for some 15 years. In the early fifties he was heavily engaged in the development of methods of analysis for low-pressure polyolefins produced by the Ziegler-Natta route, including work on high-density polyethylene and polypropylene. He was responsible for the development of methods of analysis of the organoaluminum catalysts used for the synthesis of these polymers.

He was also responsible for the development of thin-layer chromatography for the determination of various types of additives in polymers and did pioneering work on the use of TLC to separate polymer additives and to examine the separated additives by infrared and mass spectrometry. He retired in 1988 and has since been engaged as a consultant in the field of analytical chemistry and has written extensively on this subject, with some 20 books published.