POPs
Persistent organic pollutants, or POPs for short, are particularly long-lived compounds that accumulate in the environment. Thus, even low emissions from POSs can accumulate in living organisms over long periods of time. This process is called bioaccumulation. POPs accumulate preferentially in the fatty tissue of organisms and are suspected to have long-term toxic effects.

The class of POPs includes brominated flame retardants (BFR). Typical representatives are polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) and polybrominated biphenyls (PBB) as well as tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA) and hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD). In 2004 a ban on the use of pentaBDE and octaDBE came into force in the EU (2003/11 EU), which was extended to decaBDE in 2008. HBCD is classified as SVHC (substances of very high concern) under the REACH regulation.

Analytics
For the analysis of brominated flame retardants we have developed a method that allows the quantitative determination of more than 20 individual substances down to the lower ng/kg. The field of application includes water, sediments, sewage sludge and biota (fish, mussels). The method is based on an extraction of the matrix with an organic solvent and a multi-stage purification of the extract by GPC and destructive sulfuric acid clean-ups. The measurement is performed by gas chromatography coupled with high-resolution mass spectrometry (HR-GCMS, Thermo Fischer, DFS-System). The detection limit in water is 0.1 ng/L and 0.1 µg/kg in solids and biota for all PBDE, PBB and TBBPA.

Application