Plastics analysis resin identification

Alam MK, Stanton S, Hebner GA. Plastics analysis at two national laboratories. Part A. Resin identification using near-infrared spectroscopy and neural networks. In Burns DA, Ciurczak EW, editors. Handbook of Near-Infrared Analysis. 2nd ed. New York Marcel Dekker 2001. 

The various physical constants and functions are used for the identification of complex mixtures such as mineral oils, fatty oils, plastics, resins and silicates. Separation of these products into individual components is generally impossible, and methods had to be developed in which certain structural groupings of the mixtures are considered instead of individual molecules or atoms.To identify such complicated mixtures physical constants could be applied successfully for their structural group analysis and for the prediction of various important technical properties. 

Headspace sampling is an excellent technique for the analysis of compounds that produce, odors in many commercial products, such as plastics, rubbers, paints, resins, etc. Interfacing of a headspace GC with a mass spectrometer provides valuable information for the identification of such components. Figure 9 shows the output from head space-GC analysis of residual benzene and toluene in polymeric material. 

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