Plastics and Polymers
Qualitative and Quantitative Elemental Analysis |
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Polymer
and plastics are materials composed of repeating hydrocarbon structural
units, typically connected by covalent chemical bonds. Today polymers can
be found everywhere, the range of applications that far exceeds that of
any other traditional material from packaging materials, adhesives,
foams, plastic containers, textiles, fibers and construction parts in
airplanes and automobiles. The
list of polymers includes Rubber,
Bakelite, Neoprene,
Polypropylene (PP),
Polystyrene (PS),
High impact polystyrene (HIPS),
Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS),
Polyethylene terephthalate (PET),
Polyester (PES),
Polyamides - Nylon (PA),
Polyvinyl chloride (PVC),
Polyurethanes (PU),
Polycarbonate (PC),
Polyvinylidene chloride (PVDC),
Polyethylene (PE),
Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA),
Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE),
Polyetheretherketone (PEEK),
Polyetherimide (PEI),
Phenolics (PF),
Urea-formaldehyde (UF),
Melamine formaldehyde (MF),
Polylactic acid (PLA),
Silicone, and many
more. Stabilizers,
fire retardants, pigments and fillers
During
development and production, the compounds in polymers have to be
controlled strictly to meet the national and international regulations
avoiding potential danger due to hazardous and toxic substances.
Directives for the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS), as well
as End of Life Vehicle (ELV), include restrictions for the use of
cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), lead (Pb), chromium (VI) (Cr) and poly-brominated
(Br) flame retardants (PBB and PBDE) in order to mitigate potential
risks to health or environment. For all tasks in polymer R&D and
production, energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) spectroscopy
can identify and quantify concentrations of the aforementioned additives
- as well as antimony, barium, calcium, copper, phosphorus, titanium,
zinc and all other elements from sodium (Na) through uranium (U). Semiquantitative elemental analysis without standardsThe
Rigaku NEX CG EDXRF is powered by a new
qualitative and quantitative analytical software, RPF-SQX, that features
Rigaku Profile Fitting (RPF) technology. The software allows
semi-quantitative analysis of almost all sample types without standards
—and rigorous quantitative analysis with standards. Featuring
Rigaku's famous Scatter FP method, the software can automatically
estimate the concentration of unobserved low atomic number elements (H
to F) and provide appropriate corrections. RPF-SQX
greatly reduces the number of required standards, for a given level of
calibration fit, as compared to conventional EDXRF analytical software.
As standards are expensive, and can be difficult to obtain for newly
developed materials, the utility of having a NEX CG spectrometer can
significantly lower costs and reduce workload requirements for routine
elemental analysis needs. Plastics/polymers information and resources
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