Time-gated Raman spectroscopy of recovered plastics

Published

July 1, 2022

Author(s)

Anthony Kotula, Sara Orski, Kayla Brignac, Jennifer Lynch, Bryan Heilala

Abstract

Raman spectroscopy is a powerful non-destructive technique for the identification and characterization of plastics. The technique often has limited use due to fluorescence emission, which often occurs in polymer samples containing colorants or that have been subjected to weathering and degradation. Here, we demonstrate that time-gated Raman spectroscopy can be used to successfully characterize recovered plastics that exhibit strong background fluorescence due to the presence of additives and dyes. Time-gating removes a significant amount of background signal from the Raman spectra such that the polymers and color additives can be identified using similar measurement times compared to continuous-wave Raman spectroscopy. Examples of this are shown for blue samples containing an organic dye and a white sample containing titanium dioxide. This technique can also be used to characterize samples that are black in color due to carbon-based additives like graphite, which can be challenging to characterize via other common vibrational spectroscopic techniques.

Citation

Marine Pollution Bulletin

Volume

181

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2022.113894

Local Download

Keywords

Raman spectroscopy, polymers

Citation

Kotula, A. , Orski, S. , Brignac, K. , Lynch, J. and Heilala, B. (2022), Time-gated Raman spectroscopy of recovered plastics, Marine Pollution Bulletin, [online], https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2022.113894, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=934175 (Accessed October 7, 2025)