Analyzing Recycled Polyethylene Resin for Polypropylene Contamination Using the Spectrum Two™ IR Spectrometer from PerkinElmer

The use of post-consumer recycled, high-density polyethylene (HDPE) has been steadily growing over recent years. Polypropylene (PP), a material that has similar physical properties to HDPE, is a common contaminate in post-consumer recycled HDPE resin and can adversely affect end-product performance. In order to maintain high quality, it is imperative that processors monitor and control the amount of PP contained in recycled resin. For this purpose, a reliable tool is Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR), and, to that end, the PerkinElmer Spectrum Two™ FT-IR is the easy-to-use, accurate system for measuring the amount of PP in recycled HDPE resin. This application note presents the methodology for employing the PerkinElmer Spectrum Two for this analysis.