Discrimination between virgin and recycled polystyrene containers by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and principal component analysis

A rapid and reliable method for discriminating virgin and recycled expanded polystyrene (EPS) containers was developed using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy combined with principal component analysis. Standard normal variate, first and second-order derivative spectra were compared for the discrimination results. The results show that carbonyl region (1780-1620cm(-1)) spectra using first derivative transformation give the optimum classification results. In addition, the carbonyl compounds in EPS containers were detected to clarify the chemical difference between virgin and recycled containers, with a higher concentration of carbonyl compounds observed in recycled EPS containers. The combination of carbonyl region of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy with chemometrics proved to be a promising method to discriminate virgin and recycled EPS containers, which could function as an additional tool for quality control of plastics.