Influence of different laser irradiation methods on determination of composition content in polypropylene/low-density polyethylene blends using Raman spectroscopy

ABSTRACT

Sample movement makes a difference to raw Raman spectra and determination of composition content using Raman spectroscopy. Therefore, it is necessary to have further studies in this aspect. In this paper, different laser irradiation methods were investigated for determination of composition content in polypropylene (PP)/low-density polyethylene (LDPE) blends using Raman spectroscopy. Raw Raman spectra of PP sample were firstly collected using different laser irradiation methods. It was shown that the relative standard deviations (RSD) of PP sample under circle irradiation were ten times bigger than that under point irradiation at the little sacrifice of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). In other words, rotating (or moving) PP sample during Raman spectra collection could signally improve sample representation. Owing to this, in combined with partial least squares (PLS), Raman quantitative analysis of PP concentration in PP/LDPE blends were performed by different laser irradiation methods. The results validated that blend samples with rotation during Raman measurement led to lower prediction errors in prediction of PP concentration. The best root-mean-square error of prediction (RMSEP) and coefficient of determination (R²) that were obtained for PP were respectively 2.10% and 0.9884.

KEYWORDS:

• Laser irradiation
• partial least-squares
• polymer blends
• Raman spectroscopy

Funding

This work is supported by the National Instrumentation Program of China (Grant No. 2012YQ230043) and the General Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 11572129).