Determination of bromophenols as dioxin precursors in combustion gases of fire retarded extruded polystyrene by sorptive sampling-capillary gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

Extruded polystyrene (XPS) is often treated with hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD) as fire retardant (FR). Because of its aliphatic structure, HBCD is not suspected to cause formation of polybrominated dioxins upon combustion. Precursors of polybrominated dioxins, namely bromophenols, were detected during tubular furnace combustion experiments of FR-XPS in combination with sorptive enrichment on polydimethylsiloxane followed by on-line thermal desorption-capillary GC/MS. The highest concentration of mono- and tribromophenols detected were 85.9 and 3.7 mg kg(-1), respectively, at a temperature of 700 degrees C, while a temperature of 500 degrees C yielded the highest concentration of dibromophenols namely 10.4 mg kg(-1). At a combustion temperature of 900 degrees C no bromophenols were detected.