Identification of Inorganic Filler Materials in Polymers by Combined FIR-MIR ATR Studies

Today there is a high demand for modern polymeric materials which can be adapted to specific tasks. There is a wide variety from homopolymers to copolymers, consisting of different types of monomers, and up to polymer blends. All of them are mostly blended with further additives and filler materials to improve the properties of the pure material or to reduce material costs. By adding inorganic filler materials many attributes can be enhanced, e. g. the mechanical and optical properties, the processability or the fire retardancy. For the complete characterization of these composite materials the mid and far infrared regions of the spectrum are of interest.