Shimadzu Scientific Instruments today announces the release of the LabSolutions IR thermal-damaged plastics library. The unique library contains infrared (IR) spectra data of 13 types of plastics, both unheated and damaged thermally at 200 to 400 degrees C. Many commercial libraries do not contain spectra for thermally damaged plastics, so this data is crucial to laboratories using FTIR spectroscopy to analyze plastic contaminants. This includes fields such as food, pharmaceuticals, electricals and electronics, petroleum, chemical, and others.
The shape of IR spectra of thermally damaged plastics differs from the spectra of undamaged plastics. Many commercial libraries do not contain spectra for these types of plastics, or misrepresent the damaged spectrum. Shimadzu’s thermal-damaged plastics library is exceptionally effective for analyzing unknown samples that commercial libraries cannot cover, such as thermally changed contaminants and defective products.
Shimadzu’s thermal-damaged plastics library was created using spectra obtained by Hamamatsu Technical Support Center, Industrial Research Institute of Shizuoka Prefecture. An infrared microscope in transmittance mode was used to obtain the spectra.