Standoff Detection of Plastics

Abstract

Rapid identification of different plastics for recycling is very important in overcoming the plastic waste challenge our society is facing today. An ideal plastic detector should be able to discern different plastics at the molecular level in a standoff fashion where the detector does not come in contact with the target plastic. We have demonstrated a standoff technique for the rapid identification of plastics based on their mid-IR absorption spectra. Since mid-IR region is free of overtones, this region is known as molecular finger print regime This technique is based on a variation of photoacoustic spectroscopy (PAS), where the light from a tunable infrared source, a quantum cascade laser (QCL), is scattered/reflected off the target plastic object. The returning scattered light is collected and made to create acoustic waves on a microfabricated cantilever sensor. Our experimental results show that the cantilever response, resonance frequency, amplitude, and bending, changes with infrared absorption characteristics of the target. A plot of cantilever response as a function of illuminating wavelength mimic the infrared absorption peaks of the plastics material producing a mechanical spectrum. The generated spectrum obtained for different plastics is then compared with that conventional spectrum for polymer identification.