An Investigation on the Extraction and Quantitation of a Hexavalent Chromium in Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene Copolymer (ABS) and Printed Circuit Board (PCB) by Ion Chromatography Coupled with Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectrometry

A hexavalent chromium (Cr (VI)) is one of the hazardous substances regulated by the RoHS. The determination of Cr (VI) in various polymers and printed circuit board (PCB) has been very important. In this study, the three different analytical methods were investigated for the determination of a hexavalent chromium in Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene copolymer (ABS) and PCB. The results by three analytical methods were obtained and compared. An analytical method by UV-Visible spectrometer has been generally used for the determination of Cr (VI) in a sample, but a hexavalent chromium should complex with diphenylcarbazide for the detection in the method. The complexation did make an adverse effect on the quantitative analysis of Cr (VI) in ABS. The analytical method using diphenylcarbazide was also not applicable to printed circuit board (PCB) because PCB contained lots of irons. The irons interfered with the analysis of hexavalent chromium because those also could complex with diphenylcarbazide. In this study, hexavalent chromiums in PCB have been separated by ion chromatography (IC), then directly and selectively detected by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES). The quantity of Cr (VI) in PCB was 0.1 mg/kg.