Determination of volatile organic compounds in palm-based polyurethane foams using static headspace gas chromatography mass spectrometer

Volatile organic compounds (VOC), in combination with other environmental factors, are potential health and environmental hazards. Studies have shown that an abundance of VOC were released from home and personal care products, building and transportation materials. A direct method employing a static headspace sampler (HS), a gas chromatography (GC) and a mass spectrometer detector (MS) has been developed and validated for semi-quantitative analysis of VOC emitted from palm-based polyurethane (PU) foams. In this method, PU foams were heated and the volatiles were extracted and then analysed by GC-MS. The conditions of the HS-GC-MS system were optimised to achieve high recovery and sensitivity. Method validation was performed and it demonstrated an average recovery of 95% and 89% for DABCO 33LV and NIAX A1 (volatile amines), respectively. The limit of detection was 0.66 ppm while the limit of quantitation was 1.32 ppm. Analyses performed on commercial and palm-based PU foams showed that the concentration of overall VOC detected did not exceed the limits set by car manufacturers (maximum at 50 ppm). The VOC detected were mainly DABCO 33LV and NIAX A1. The method developed was found to be effective and considered rapid without laborious sample preparation and can be used by PU manufacturers to monitor the level of VOC in their products