Applicability of Quantitative Calibrators for Determining Total Organic Carbon (TOC) in Biodegradable Plastics by the Combustion Oxidation Method

LIU Shitu; CHEN Yanfen; WEI Kun; CHEN Caixia; YAO Haocheng; CHEN Jie; LI Dan

doi:10.19554/j.cnki.1001-3563.2026.17.017

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Packaging Engineering ›› 2026, Vol. 47 ›› Issue (17) : 155-161. DOI: 10.19554/j.cnki.1001-3563.2026.17.017

Applicability of Quantitative Calibrators for Determining Total Organic Carbon (TOC) in Biodegradable Plastics by the Combustion Oxidation Method

LIU Shitu, CHEN Yanfen, WEI Kun, CHEN Caixia, YAO Haocheng, CHEN Jie, LI Dan^*

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Abstract

The work aims to select suitable total organic carbon (TOC) calibration compounds to further optimize the combustion oxidation method for the determination of TOC in biodegradable plastics and enhance the accuracy and reliability of analytical results. Six candidate calibration compounds, namely oxalic acid, phthalic acid, potassium hydrogen phthalate, sucrose, cellulose and calcium carbonate, were initially screened out. A series of experiments were designed to investigate the applicability of the six compounds for determining TOC in plastics from multiple aspects. The moisture content, water yield during combustion, and thermal stability of the six candidate calibration compounds were determined. Furthermore, mutual calibration TOC tests among these compounds, validation using actual samples with known compositions, as well as precision and recovery tests on plastic samples with unknown compositions were conducted. The results demonstrated that cellulose and sucrose exhibited superior performance in all tests. In conclusion, it is feasible to use cellulose or sucrose as quantitative calibration compounds for testing TOC in biodegradable plastics by the combustion oxidation method.

Key words

combustion oxidation method / biodegradable plastics / total organic carbon (TOC) / calibration compound

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LIU Shitu, CHEN Yanfen, WEI Kun, CHEN Caixia, YAO Haocheng, CHEN Jie, LI Dan. Applicability of Quantitative Calibrators for Determining Total Organic Carbon (TOC) in Biodegradable Plastics by the Combustion Oxidation Method[J]. Packaging Engineering. 2026, 47(17): 155-161 https://doi.org/10.19554/j.cnki.1001-3563.2026.17.017

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