Quantifying cellulose content in plastic-cellulose material mixtures

Loading...
Thumbnail Image

Access rights

openAccess

URL

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä

Date

2024-11

Major/Subject

Mcode

Degree programme

Language

en

Pages

9

Series

Cellulose, Volume 31, issue 16, pp. 9613-9621

Abstract

This study investigates the capabilities of various measurement techniques for quantifying the cellulose content in reject material from a carton recycling center, which consists of polyethylene, cellulose, and aluminum, along with impurities. Different measurement techniques, including Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy combined with Attenuated Total Reflectance (FTIR-ATR), cellulose dissolution using cupri-ethylenediamine (CED) from plastic followed by gravimetric analysis, acid hydrolysis combined with chromatography, and Thermal Gravimetric Analysis TGA, are employed in this study. Acid hydrolysis combined with chromatography and TGA shows comparable results when compared to different techniques for analyzing pulper reject. Dissolution with CED showed also comparable results but shows higher variation than TGA or chromatography. FTIR absorbance ratio of 1025/2917 correlates with cellulose content, but it shows high variation and lacks sensitivity below 5% cellulose content in polyethylene. This limitation is attributed to factors such as the limited measurement area (1.8 mm) and the large particle size of the cellulose and LDPE mixtures, possibly caused by inadequate grinding of LDPE. In conclusion, TGA and acid hydrolysis combined with chromatography are the most reliable for quantifying cellulose content in recycling reject, providing more consistent and accurate results than FTIR-ATR or CED dissolution methods.

Description

Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2024.

Keywords

CED (Cupri-ethylenediamine), FTIR spectroscopy (Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy), HPAEC (High-Performance Anion-Exchange Chromatography), LDPE (low-Density polyethylene), Recycling, TGA (thermogravimetric analysis)

Other note

Citation

Kauppi, E, Niskanen, J, Hiltunen, E & Paltakari, J 2024, ' Quantifying cellulose content in plastic-cellulose material mixtures ', Cellulose, vol. 31, no. 16, pp. 9613-9621 . https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-024-06187-y