The importance of plastic materials in everyday life is constantly growing as more and more products of daily use are made from synthetic polymers. However, these materials are degradation-prone during exposure to sun light and oxygen. The generation of free radicals may lead to scission of the polymer chains, and possible  consequences range from yellowing to brittleness, finally resulting in complete failure of the material. Therefore, stabilizers protecting them against light, thermal and oxidative decomposition are added. Unfortunately these stabilizers can get degraded themselves or simply washed out by different impacts from the environment. For this reason it is important to analyze type, distribution, and degradation products of stabilizers within a polymeric material.

The comprehensive characterization of plastic materials and the optimization of new materials providing higher quality requires the availability of a range of sophisticated analytical techniques. Ideally, such techniques should work without any sample preparation step. This can be realized for some stabilizers by Direct Analysis In Real Time (DART) mass spectrometry. A more universal approach is based on an extraction of the stabilizers from the polymer followed by HPLC with APCI- or APPI-MS detection. Using high-resolution MS, degradation products of stabilizers can be identified, leading to a better understanding of the degradation mechanisms during weathering experiments. For screening purposes, it is even possible to do flow injection analysis with MS detection of the extracts without any chromatographic separation step.

The combined use of advanced HPLC and MS techniques allows a better understanding of failure of plastic materials in areas like hot water pipes, solar thermal systems, or photovoltaic systems. Results from these analytical measurements are essential for development of improved plastics for new applications.