In this contribution investigations with fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) are made to optically distinguish polymers and wood. The results show that the distinction and identification is possible in a graphical and calculative way.
The direct identification of plastics in an environmental matrix is heavily researched. We successfully developed a BLOB-detection algorithm based on differences of Gaussians to identify HDPE particles in an artificial environmental matrix using FD-FLIM.
The analysis of wood structures using FD-FLIM seems promising for the identification of wood at 488 nm, as lignin has a high impact on the fluorescence lifetime.
The impact of fillers on the fluorescence lifetime of polymers is still unknown. Investigating polypropylene containing different CaCO3 concentrations using FD-FLIM show an exponential increase in fluorescence lifetime proportional to the CaCO3 density in polypropylene.
Tire wear is one of the major contributors of environmental pollution by microplastic. FD-FLIM in combination with an image processing algorithm are successfully applied to detect tyre wear on soil.