LASER-INDUCED BREAKDOWN SPECTROSCOPY FOR POLYMER IDENTIFICATION

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy has been applied to polymer sampl es in order to investigate the possibility of using this method for th e identification of different materials. The plasma emission spectra o f high-density polyethylene (HDPE), low-density polyethylene (LDPE), p olyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and polypro pylene (PP) have been studied. Spectral features have been measured-fo r example, the 725.7 nm chlorine line, the 486.13 mm H-beta line, and the 247.86 nm carbon line-whose evaluation with neural networks permit s identification accuracies between 90 and 100%, depending on polymer type.