Efficient Extraction of Antioxidants and Lubricants from Commercial Polypropylene Pellets and Their Quantification Using HPLC

Abstract

Additive analysis in commercially available plastic materials is a somewhat challenging task owing to the complex nature of the polymer matrix. This is due to the presence of the complex nature of the constituents present in the total matrix. Various types of stabilizing additives are added to the polymer at the production stage for the stabilization of the crude plastic resins especially polyolefins like polypropylene. A number stabilizing additives, viz, branched phenolic antioxidants that scavenge acidic radicals and organo-phosphites that decompose peroxides, and amide lubricant additives like oleamide and erucamide gives slippery nature to the plastic films. Due to the complex nature and response of these additives, different methods are employed to their quantification such as FTIR, GC, LCMS, etc. In this article, a method for effective extraction and subsequent quantification of both primary and secondary antioxidants (antioxidant and phosphite) and lubricants (oleamide and erucamide) using HPLC Agilent C18 column in a single run with a reverse-phase octadecylsilane (ODS) column with less than. Detections of the analytes were carried out using the VVD detector at 202 nm with an analysis time of less than 25 min.