Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy for Polymer Identification

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy has been applied to polymer samples in order to investigate the possibility of using this method for the identification of different materials. The plasma emission spectra of high-density polyethylene (HDPE), low-density polyethylene (LDPE), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and polypropylene (PP) have been studied. Spectral features have been measured—for example, the 725.7 nm chlorine line, the 486.13 mm H β line, and the 247.86 nm carbon line—whose evaluation with neural networks permits identification accuracies between 90 and 100%, depending on polymer type.