dc.description.abstract
In the present work studies on the stability of frequently used polymer additives and monomers, such as antioxidants and e.g. Bisphenol A, during different extraction methods were performed. Thus, in a first step, the theoretical suitability of these methods for a total extraction of plastic additives from polymeric materials, such as plastic food packaging, should be determined, by the subsequent quantification of the additive concentrations in the extracts, by the calculation of their recovery. The extraction methods used were standard methods such as refluxing, ultrasonic extraction and dissolving and precipitating the polymer in suitable solvents. In addition, a modern, automated extraction method, the ASE, was examined for its suitability. Following the stability tests two plastic samples, LDPE and PP, were extracted with the same methods used before to determine their applicability in practice on the basis of the recovery for --caprolactam, benzophenone, diphenyl phthalate and bisphenol A, which were added to the polymers in defined concentration in addition to the additives, eventually included in the test samples. A comparison of the results of extraction yields of additives from the polymers between traditional extraction methods (ultrasound, reflux, and dissolution/precipitation) and Pressurized Fluid Extraction showed that the PFE does not, as expected, lead to the highest recoveries under the applied extraction conditions. Following the extraction experiments, the same test samples of PP and LDPE were used for the determination of overall migration in different regulated food simulants as well as in fatty food simulant substitutes. In addition, the suitability of different solvents (n-heptane, tertiary butyl acetate and n-butyl acetate), as well as of solvent mixtures made from 96% Ethanol with differing amounts of tertiary butyl acetate as potential new fatty food simulant substitutes was determined. Different time/temperature conditions were used during these experiments. In particular, the usage of acetates as fatty food simulant substitutes is repeatedly described in the literature, since these, in contrast to ethanol and isooctane simulate the ester functions in olive oil. Based on the results of the overall migration this is also true for the investigated test samples in this work. This clearly indicates that the selection of suitable fatty food simulant substitutes should always be done with the involvement of the investigated sample. Especially in the application of fatty food simulant substitutes for the determination of the specific migration should always be taken into account the aggressiveness of the used a solvent for plastic materials, and especially the solubility and stability of the investigated analytes in the fatty food simulant substitute used. The same additives that were used for the stability tests during different extraction methods were also utilized for stability tests in food simulants and fatty food simulant substitutes applied for the determination of overall migration under differing storage conditions. Especially for the investigated antioxidants there partially great losses in their recovery over a time range of 10 days. VII For the verification of the suitability of different fatty food simulant substitutes, the specific migration of DPP, BP and BPA added to the test samples LDPE and PP was determined in different fatty food simulant substitutes after defined time/temperature conditions. In general, the results of this work showed that automated and sometimes very expensive extraction methods are not necessarily suitable for a total extraction of additives from plastic materials. In Addition the optimization effort for the extraction method is often very high, and should be carried out for each polymer and additive. Also, the results for the migration tests show that mixtures of ethanol/water and isooctane are hardly suitable for the replacement of olive oil as fatty food simulant substitutes. The significantly different solubility of the polymers in these fatty food simulant substitutes, often results in a significant overestimation of overall migration in polyolefins with isooctane compared with olive oil, whereas 96% and 50% ethanol, however, lead to an underestimation.
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