Antioxidants are compounds that are added to polymers during production to protect them from oxidation and consequent degradation. In this diploma thesis, I optimized the HPLC method for the determination of two antioxidants that may be present in polyvinyl chloride (PVC); octadecyl 3-(3,5-di-tert-butyl-4-hydroxyphenyl)propionate (AO 1) and 3,9-bis(octadecyloxy)-2,4,8,10-tetraoxa-3,9-diphosphaspiro[5.5]undecane (AO 2). First, a suitable solvent for both antioxidants was discovered. It proved to be acetone. Then the most optimal HPLC conditions for the separation of antioxidants were sought using a C18 reverse phase column and two mobile phases for gradient elution – acetonitrile and MQ water. The injection volume was 30 μL and the flow was kept constant at 1 mL/min. A wavelength of 192 nm was set on the detector. Mixed standard solutions of different concentrations of antioxidants were injected and the calibration lines were drawn. For AO 1 the method was linear at lower concentrations of this antioxidant, in addition, the limit of detection and consequently the limit of determination were significantly lower than for AO 2. Effectiveness of determination of the antioxidants in the case that the PVC contains plasticizers was discovered. This was achieved with an injection of a mixed standard solution containing both antioxidants and bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), which may be included in PVC as a plasticizer. DEHP did not interfere with the determination of the antioxidants. Finally, the method on two PVC samples was tested. Only AO 1 could be qualitatively and quantitatively determined by this method, as there was no corresponding chromatographic peak for AO 2.
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