PMID- 32682135 OWN - NLM STAT- MEDLINE DCOM- 20201021 LR - 20201021 IS - 1879-1298 (Electronic) IS - 0045-6535 (Linking) VI - 260 DP - 2020 Dec TI - Analysis of volatile compounds causing undesirable odors in a polypropylene - high-density polyethylene recycled plastic resin with solid-phase microextraction. PG - 127589 LID - S0045-6535(20)31784-7 [pii] LID - 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.127589 [doi] AB - Although recycled plastics provide a low-cost and environmentally friendly alternative for many applications, their desirability is significantly limited by the presence of unpleasant odors from volatile organic compounds (VOCs). In this work, a headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) method was optimized to analyze volatile compounds from an odorous recycled plastic resin which was roughly composed of 85-90% polypropylene (PP) and 15-10% high-density polyethylene (HDPE). A large variety of aliphatic hydrocarbons and 13 additive residues were detected. Statistical tools were employed to screen the VOCs and successfully identified three components, i.e., 2,4-dimethyl-heptane, 4-methyl-octane and octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane (D(4)), which were significantly related to the odor intensity of the recycled plastic resin (p-values < 0.05). 2,4-Dimethyl-heptane has a strong, pungent plastic smell, which is very similar to the odor of the recycled resin. It is identified as a major source of the odor. Past relevant research has not been able to establish a direct link between an odorous compound and the undesirable odor of recycled plastic until now. 4-Methyl-octane was highly corelated to 2,4-dimethyl-heptane and somewhat contributed to the odor. D(4) does not have an odor, but it may serve as an indicator of some odorous residues from personal care products. CI - Copyright (c) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. FAU - Fuller, Jon AU - Fuller J AD - Department of Chemistry and Physics, Troy University, AL, 36082, USA. FAU - White, David AU - White D AD - Department of Chemistry and Physics, Troy University, AL, 36082, USA. FAU - Yi, Huijun AU - Yi H AD - Department of Mathematics, Troy University, AL, 36082, USA. FAU - Colley, Jason AU - Colley J AD - Department of Chemistry and Physics, Troy University, AL, 36082, USA. FAU - Vickery, Zane AU - Vickery Z AD - Department of Chemistry and Physics, Troy University, AL, 36082, USA. FAU - Liu, Shaoyang AU - Liu S AD - Department of Chemistry and Physics, Troy University, AL, 36082, USA; Center for Materials and Manufacturing Sciences, Troy University, AL 36082, USA. Electronic address: lius@troy.edu. LA - eng PT - Journal Article DEP - 20200709 PL - England TA - Chemosphere JT - Chemosphere JID - 0320657 RN - 0 (Plastics) RN - 0 (Polypropylenes) RN - 0 (Resins, Synthetic) RN - 0 (Volatile Organic Compounds) RN - 9002-88-4 (Polyethylene) SB - IM MH - Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry/methods MH - Odorants/*analysis MH - Plastics/chemistry MH - Polyethylene/chemistry MH - Polypropylenes/chemistry MH - Recycling MH - Resins, Synthetic/*chemistry MH - Solid Phase Microextraction/*methods MH - Volatile Organic Compounds/*analysis OTO - NOTNLM OT - GC-MS OT - Odor OT - Recycled plastic resin OT - SPME OT - Volatile compound COIS- Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. EDAT- 2020/07/19 06:00 MHDA- 2020/10/22 06:00 CRDT- 2020/07/19 06:00 PHST- 2020/03/10 00:00 [received] PHST- 2020/06/27 00:00 [revised] PHST- 2020/06/30 00:00 [accepted] PHST- 2020/07/19 06:00 [pubmed] PHST- 2020/10/22 06:00 [medline] PHST- 2020/07/19 06:00 [entrez] AID - S0045-6535(20)31784-7 [pii] AID - 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.127589 [doi] PST - ppublish SO - Chemosphere. 2020 Dec;260:127589. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.127589. Epub 2020 Jul 9.