Analytical characteristics of several new brominated flame retardants

The analytical characteristics of several new brominated flame retardants (BFRs) were investigated. Spiked dust extracts were used to compare the relative stability and recovery of new BFRs during three clean-up procedures on silica, acidified silica and Florisil. The behaviour of new BFRs in two ionization sources of the mass spectrometer (MS), electron impact (EI) and electron capture negative ionization (ECNI), and on three different capillary columns were studied. It was shown that the simultaneous detection of new BFRs and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) can be achieved using acidified silica as sample clean-up, followed by GC-ECNI/MS analysis on a 15 m × 0.25 mm × 0.10 μm DB-5 column. A very low detection frequency of the investigated new BFRs in selected Belgian indoor dust samples (n = 20) was found, suggesting that these alternate BFRs are only slowly replacing PBDEs in consumer goods.