Plastics and Rubber

To accurately and quickly measure the amount of carbon and sulfur contained in the material.

Plastic pollution from fishing gear is a global problem that harms the environment. Recycling of damaged or abandoned fishing gear is one way of mitigating the issue, however the exact nature of the polymer must be known in order to identify the correct recycling stream. In this paper, the MacroRAM benchtop Raman spectrometer with remote BallProbe® is used to quickly identify plastics used in various gillnet samples. Raman spectroscopy is demonstrated to be an excellent technique for identifying not only different types of polymers, but also different variants within a polymer class and additives including pigments.

Sulfer is added in the natural rubber to produce plastic materials. However, it is important to measure the sulfer contained in the rubber to define the chemical and mechanical properties of the final product.

Due to Covid-19, a wide choice of protective masks are now on the market. These types of masks are distinguished, in particular, by their different efficiencies linked to their filtration capacity. These differences in protective properties have therefore made it essential to characterize the composition of the masks. In this paper, we present why LabRAM Soleil™ confocal Raman multimode microscope is the perfect tool for studying the distribution and composition of mask fibers.