Tailoring fatty food simulants made from solvent mixtures (1): comparison of methanol, ethanol and isopropanol behaviour with polystyrene

To investigate the use of solvent mixtures as test media replacing olive oi l in migration tests, the interaction of polystyrene with mixtures composed of various amounts of tert.butyl acetate (mimicking the ester functions of oil) and of a low molecular weight alcohol (methanol, ethanol and isopropa nol as inert co-solvent) was studied, using FTIR. Isopropanol, which has a lesser tendency to form hydrogen bonds in the plastic, can be used as main component of alternative fatty test media, its aggressiveness to polystyren e being tailored by adjusting the concentration of tert.butyl acetate. Conc entrations below 20% seem useful on the basis of the mechanism of displacem ent of the alcohols.