Automated sorting of plastics using bi-exponential fluorescence decay times of autofluorescence

摘要

Plastics are identified by bi-exponential components of their own fluorescence and can be sorted by type, especially for recycling purposes. The method provides a significant increase in reliability compared to a mono-exponential detection and allows to detect even smaller differences of batches, since now with the two decay time constants and the ratio of the associated fluorescence intensities three characteristic measures are available.