Abstract
Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS) was used to understand the sorption and desorption of organic contaminants in the polymer Poly(ethylene terephthalate), or PET. Samples were exposed to a range of organics to simulate contamination of PET that can take place in the post-consumer waste stream. From RBS analysis, concentration depth profiles were shown to vary from a monolayer regime surface layer to a saturation level, depending on the contaminant. Heat treatments were also applied to contaminated polymer to simulate thermal processing steps in the recycling of PET. Heating caused a dramatic decrease in contaminants and in some cases a complete removal of contamination was achieved to the limit of RBS detectability.
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