A commercially available plastic box shown in Figure 1 was examined by FTIR in transmission mode.
The resulting spectrum is shown in Figure 2 (black box). The spectrum is dominated by peaks at 3062, 3027, 2922, 2848, 2238, 1602, 1475, 1452, 759, and 701 cm-1, which are due to acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) as determined by comparison with library references.
In addition to ABS, several other peaks were observed at 1551, 1475, 1393, 1318, 278, 1243, 1159, and 737 cm-1, which are due to tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA). TBBPA is a commonly used fire retardant in a variety of applications.3,4 It is also an initiator polymerization of ABS. Furthermore, a trace ester is observed at 1728 cm-1, which may be an additive in the plastic. Altogether, these results demonstrate that TBBPA is the main flame retardant component in the plastic and that the base polymer is ABS.