Rapid way to assess the safety of products from phenol-formaldehyde plastics

An express method for determining of volatile components in the products of phenol-formaldehyde plastics is developed by detecting them in the equilibrium gas phase using the piezosensors array. The sorption of substances-marker vapor which are the main pollutants in the air diffusing from plastic household products has been studied under identical conditions. The array of 8 piezosensors is selected providing minimal impact of water vapor on the microbalance results; maximum sensitivity to one / several classes of organic compounds; identification of phenol / formaldehyde in the mixtures. A method of evaluation the level of emissions of phenol, formaldehyde, toluene, acetone from household plastic products is developed using the piezosensors array. It has been proposed the ranking samples nonfood polymers into groups according to the danger degree based on the total content of volatile organic compounds and the presence of phenol / formaldehyde. Accuracy of the phenol determination in polymers is verified by standard spectrophotometric method with 4-aminoantipyrine, it is shown the results of both methods satisfactorily converge. The proposed method can significantly reduce the economic and time costs on analysis and expand the analytical information about the content of other volatile substances in a single measurement.