Polymers | Characterization of biodegradable polymers
Polymers play a crucial role in all aspects of modern life. However, environmental pollution caused by petroleum-based polymers has become a global concern, driving the need for sustainable alternatives in the form of biodegradable polymers. Therefore, it is important to know which materials are truly biodegradable. ATR-FTIR spectroscopy proves to be a recommendable method to analyze those polymers.
Polymers are a vital part of the modern world as they provide many needed functions such as packaging, clothing or components for the high-tech industry, to name a few fields. Additives are used to intentionally manipulate the chemical and physical properties of the material to further customize the polymer for the intended use. The polymers polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) represent the synthetically produced plastics, which are used in packaging the most as they make up around 92 %. (1) The downside is that they play a considerable part in environmental pollution, due to their slow degradation. During this process, they may become brittle and disintegrate into tiny fragments, so called microplastics, which end up in natural ecosystems.
Considering this, a quick characterization of polymers, in order to determine whether they are made of biodegradable materials, is becoming a necessity. This is possible by using FTIR (Fourier transform infrared) spectroscopy. It allows to measure samples of every consistency and combined with Attenuated Total Reflection (ATR) technique no sample preparation is required.
The resulting FTIR spectra show peaks of the polymer as well as additives using the integrated analysis tool of Lyza 7000.
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