Emission of possible odourous low molecular weight compounds in recycled biofibre/polypropylene composites monitored by head-space SPME-GCeMS 

 -  Polymer Degradation and Stability, 90(3), p.555-562, 2005 .
<br/><br/> A disadvantage of the use of natural fibres to reinforce polypropylene is their poor thermal stability, which results in their degradation at processing temperatures of the composites. As a result of this, there is a formation of low molecular weight compounds that are responsible for undesirable odours. Head-space-solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME)was used as a sample preparation technique and gas chromatographyemass spectrometry (GCeMS)was used to identify the low molecular weight compounds in natural polypropylene/polypropylene composites after simulating degradation. Among the compounds found in the samples, there are fragments of PP chains as heptadecane, compounds from antioxidants such as 2,4-bis(1,1-dimethylethyl)-phenol, and p-tert-butylphenol, and compounds from biofibres ageing, such as ethylparaben and vanillin. Numerous carboxylic acids were also identified, being these most probably the source of the undesirable odours. 
<br/><br/><label>Subjects--Topical Terms: </label><br/>SOLID PHASE MICROEXTRACTION<br/>POLYPROPYLENE/CELLULOSE COMPOSITES<br/>THERMAL DEGRADATION