Rapid identification of plastics from electronic devices with NIR-spectroscopy

In this study, a NIR-based identification system for recycling purposes of plastics from electronic devices has been constructed and tested with 91 typical samples, such as computer housings. The system consisted of a robust NIR-monochromator with a fast InGaAs-diode array detector, a conventional halogen lamp as fight source and a standard PC for signal processing. Spectra have been collected in the wavelength range between 800 and 1700 nn. Chemometric data analysis with appropriate data preprocessing (smoothing differentiation) led to the desired distinction of the different plastic types. It was shown, that the presented system has, due to its speed, the potential of being applied to high throughput recycling streams.