Determination of the water-soluble polymer poly(ethyleneimine) (PEI) in wastewater by continuous-flow off-line pyrolysis GC/MS

Abstract

Reliable identification and quantification of water-soluble synthetic polymers (WSSP), such as polyethyleneimine (PEI), is crucial for understanding their potential impact on certain ecological environments. Therefore, this study proposes an analytical method combining on-line and off-line pyrolysis GC/MS to investigate the pyrolytic degradation. mechanism of branched PEI and develop a calibration method using specific pyrolysis. products, including methylpyrazine, dimethylpyrazine, ethylmethylpyrazine, trimethylpyrazine, methylpropylpyrazine and ethyldimethylpyrazine, for the. quantification of PEI in environmental wastewater samples. The developed analytical. method shows adequate linearity for all molecular ions of the specific pyrolysis. products, with a determination coefficient ranging from 0.95 to 0.98 for the range of 10–500 μg PEI. The limit of quantification for this method lies between 1 and 10 μg/L of PEI. The accuracy (absolute recovery 71–95%) and reproducibility (RSD < 30%) were. evaluated by multiple spiking/recovery experiments at a PEI level of 500 μg. Using this. method for samples collected from different wastewater treatment plants in Germany. reveals a significant emission of PEI to the aquatic environment with concentrations. ranging from 0.08 mg L-1–0.55 mg L-1, and thus demonstrating its applicability in. environmental studies. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on the. occurrence of PEI in environmental samples. © 2023 Elsevier B.V.