A method for sorting of plastics with an apparatus specific quantum efficiency approach

摘要

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.