Details
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 6045-6054 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | Journal of Polymers and the Environment |
| Volume | 32 |
| Issue number | 11 |
| Early online date | 17 Jul 2024 |
| Publication status | Published - Nov 2024 |
Abstract
Over the past few decades, the topic of recycling has become increasingly prominent in the field of sustainable materials and circular economy. One significant challenge is the physical separation of different types of plastics to obtain recyclates of one plastic type as pure as possible with comparable quality and properties to those of virgin material. Given the substantial effort involved in such separation, small amounts of contamination from other plastics may be tolerated. However, these contaminations must be monitored to ensure high-level recyclate quality. In recent years, compact, low-cost ion mobility spectrometers (IMS) with high analytical performance have been developed, and have thus become widely used in a variety of sensing applications. Due to their high sensitivity, IMS are particularly suited for detecting lowest concentration levels of various compounds, as required for the detection of impurities in recyclate quality monitoring. When coupled to a miniature gas chromatograph (GC), GC-IMS reach even higher separation power while being still compact. To bring recyclate samples to the gas phase, pyrolysis (Py) is used in this work. A first feasibility study was conducted to assess the potential of such a pyrolysis–gas chromatography-ion mobility spectrometer (Py-GC-IMS) with the objective of detecting contaminations of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) in polyethylene (PE) recyclates. The study clearly demonstrates the ability to identify PET-related fingerprints while suppressing the PE background matrix by design so that Py-GC-IMS seems a promising approach for in-process monitoring PET contaminations in PE recyclates.
Keywords
- Gas chromatography, Ion mobility spectrometry, Polyethylene, Polyethylene terephthalate, Pyrolysis, Recyclates
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Environmental Science(all)
- Environmental Engineering
- Materials Science(all)
- Polymers and Plastics
- Materials Science(all)
- Materials Chemistry
Sustainable Development Goals
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In: Journal of Polymers and the Environment, Vol. 32, No. 11, 11.2024, p. 6045-6054.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Towards the Development of an In-Process Quality Monitoring System for Polyethylene Recyclates by Pyrolysis Gas Chromatography Ion Mobility Spectrometry
AU - Ahrens, André
AU - Shamsuyeva, Madina
AU - Endres, Hans Josef
AU - Zimmermann, Stefan
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2024.
PY - 2024/11
Y1 - 2024/11
N2 - Over the past few decades, the topic of recycling has become increasingly prominent in the field of sustainable materials and circular economy. One significant challenge is the physical separation of different types of plastics to obtain recyclates of one plastic type as pure as possible with comparable quality and properties to those of virgin material. Given the substantial effort involved in such separation, small amounts of contamination from other plastics may be tolerated. However, these contaminations must be monitored to ensure high-level recyclate quality. In recent years, compact, low-cost ion mobility spectrometers (IMS) with high analytical performance have been developed, and have thus become widely used in a variety of sensing applications. Due to their high sensitivity, IMS are particularly suited for detecting lowest concentration levels of various compounds, as required for the detection of impurities in recyclate quality monitoring. When coupled to a miniature gas chromatograph (GC), GC-IMS reach even higher separation power while being still compact. To bring recyclate samples to the gas phase, pyrolysis (Py) is used in this work. A first feasibility study was conducted to assess the potential of such a pyrolysis–gas chromatography-ion mobility spectrometer (Py-GC-IMS) with the objective of detecting contaminations of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) in polyethylene (PE) recyclates. The study clearly demonstrates the ability to identify PET-related fingerprints while suppressing the PE background matrix by design so that Py-GC-IMS seems a promising approach for in-process monitoring PET contaminations in PE recyclates.
AB - Over the past few decades, the topic of recycling has become increasingly prominent in the field of sustainable materials and circular economy. One significant challenge is the physical separation of different types of plastics to obtain recyclates of one plastic type as pure as possible with comparable quality and properties to those of virgin material. Given the substantial effort involved in such separation, small amounts of contamination from other plastics may be tolerated. However, these contaminations must be monitored to ensure high-level recyclate quality. In recent years, compact, low-cost ion mobility spectrometers (IMS) with high analytical performance have been developed, and have thus become widely used in a variety of sensing applications. Due to their high sensitivity, IMS are particularly suited for detecting lowest concentration levels of various compounds, as required for the detection of impurities in recyclate quality monitoring. When coupled to a miniature gas chromatograph (GC), GC-IMS reach even higher separation power while being still compact. To bring recyclate samples to the gas phase, pyrolysis (Py) is used in this work. A first feasibility study was conducted to assess the potential of such a pyrolysis–gas chromatography-ion mobility spectrometer (Py-GC-IMS) with the objective of detecting contaminations of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) in polyethylene (PE) recyclates. The study clearly demonstrates the ability to identify PET-related fingerprints while suppressing the PE background matrix by design so that Py-GC-IMS seems a promising approach for in-process monitoring PET contaminations in PE recyclates.
KW - Gas chromatography
KW - Ion mobility spectrometry
KW - Polyethylene
KW - Polyethylene terephthalate
KW - Pyrolysis
KW - Recyclates
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85198832476&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10924-024-03362-x
DO - 10.1007/s10924-024-03362-x
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85198832476
VL - 32
SP - 6045
EP - 6054
JO - Journal of Polymers and the Environment
JF - Journal of Polymers and the Environment
SN - 1566-2543
IS - 11
ER -