Recent developments in the analysis of polybrominated diphenyl ethers and polybrominated biphenyls in plastic

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs), heavily used as flame retardant in plastics, are harmful to environment and human health. It is of great importance for method development to determine PBDEs and PBBs in plastics. A review of developments on the analysis of PBDEs and PBBs in plastics is presented in this paper. The analytical procedures including sample pretreatment, extraction, clean-up/fractionation, and detection are carefully discussed. The drawbacks and merits of each method are summarized. The aim of this review is to improve the analytical accuracy, and precision for the determination of PBDEs and PBBs in plastics on the basis of the published papers.