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The fluorescence decay time allows to identify and distinguish polymers from each other. Three differently treated biaxially-oriented polyethylene terephthalate films are examined with two excitation wavelengths of 445 and 488nm. The fluorescence decay time is dependent of the treatment method of the films and is a means for identification.
Nowadays, fluorescence lifetime measurements and the method of fluorescence lifetime imaging are already state of the art in biomedical research. Also first investigations show that polymers could be identified due to their endogenous fluorescent lifetime. Thus an approach of identifying polymers with fluorescence lifetime imaging is done in this contribution. Therefore, four different polymers are examined and evaluated with statistical methods in order to determine their specific fluorescence lifetimes.
Today, the automatic separation of polymers from each other in an industrial scale is an unsolved problem. In laboratory environments, two methods are known whereby plastic is sorted either by color or by fluorescence decay time measurements that require fast synchronization and thus expensive equipment. A simple and pragmatic process is proposed to separate plastics from each other: all fluorescent photons are counted in relation to the absorbed photons. A theoretical model and an experimental setup are built in order to determine an apparatus specific quantum efficiency.