title: Monitoring of WEEE plastics in regards to brominated flame retardants using handheld XRF.
abstract: This contribution is focused on the on-site determination of the bromine content in waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), in particular waste plastics from television sets (TV) and personal computer monitors (PC) using a handheld X-ray fluorescence (XRF) device. The described approach allows the examination of samples in regards to the compliance with legal specifications for polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) directly after disassembling and facilitates the sorting out of plastics with high contents of brominated flame retardants (BFRs). In all, over 3000 pieces of black (TV) and 1600 pieces of grey (PC) plastic waste were analysed with handheld XRF technique for this study. Especially noticeable was the high percentage of pieces with a bromine content of over 50,000ppm for TV (7%) and PC (39%) waste plastics. The applied method was validated by comparing the data of handheld XRF with results obtained by GC-MS. The results showed the expected and sufficiently accurate correlation between these two methods. It is shown that handheld XRF technique is an effective tool for fast monitoring of large volumes of WEEE plastics in regards to BFRs for on-site measurements.
authors.affiliation: Chair of Waste Processing Technology and Waste Management, Montanuniversitaet Leoben, Franz-Josef-Straße 18, 8700 Leoben, Austria. Electronic address: alexia.aldrian@unileoben.ac.at.
authors.forename: Alexia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Aldrian
authors.affiliation: Saubermacher Dienstleistungs AG, Hans-Roth-Straße 1, 8073 Feldkirchen bei Graz, Austria. Electronic address: a.ledersteger@saubermacher.at.
authors.forename: Alfred
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ledersteger
authors.affiliation: Chair of Waste Processing Technology and Waste Management, Montanuniversitaet Leoben, Franz-Josef-Straße 18, 8700 Leoben, Austria. Electronic address: roland.pomberger@unileoben.ac.at.
authors.forename: Roland
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pomberger
mesh_terms: D059029:Electronic Waste / Q000032:analysis*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D005411:Flame Retardants / Q000032:analysis*; D008401:Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry; D055768:Halogenated Diphenyl Ethers / Q000032:analysis*; D008838:Microcomputers; D010969:Plastics / Q000032:analysis; D011075:Polybrominated Biphenyls / Q000032:analysis*; D013052:Spectrometry, X-Ray Emission; D013690:Television
chemical_list: D005411:Flame Retardants; D055768:Halogenated Diphenyl Ethers; D010969:Plastics; D011075:Polybrominated Biphenyls
keywords: Brominated flame retardants; Handheld XRF; On-site investigation; Waste electrical and electronic equipment; Waste plastics