Correlation between emitted and total amount of 2-cyclopentyl-cyclopentanone in polyamide 6.6 allows rapid assessment by HS and HS-SPME under non-equilibrium conditions

A correlation was found between the emitted and total amount of 2-cyclopentyl-cyclopentanone in polyamide 6.6. The emitted amounts were measured by GC–MS after headspace (HS) or headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) and the total content was determined after microwave-assisted extraction (MAE). The correlation was valid also under non-equilibrium conditions, which allows rapid assessment of 2-cyclopentyl-cyclopentanone content in polyamide 6.6 by headspace techniques. The incubation time needed for non-equilibrium headspace analysis could be reduced from 5 h to 45 min if the PA66 granules were milled to powder prior to extraction. However, to reach equilibrium between the analyte in the solid sample and the headspace still required 12 h of incubation at 80 °C. The long incubation time is explained by slow diffusion rate due to the strong hydrogen bonding between analyte and matrix and the relatively high crystallinity of polyamide 6.6. The headspace extraction profile showed several equilibrium-like patterns that are easily mistaken for the real equilibrium.