Nondestructive evaluation of physico-mechanical properties of polypropylene copolymer by infra-red spectroscopy

We present a novel approach to nondestructive evaluation of various physico-mechanical properties of polypropylene copolymer (PPCP) by a single step measurement of infra-red spectrum followed by chemometric operation of the predetermined characteristic region of spectrum through an inbuilt software to obtain various properties/parameters i.e. average melt flow index (av. MFI), izod impact, and flexural modulus, required for quality evaluation of the copolymer. This method is simple, fast, and direct, involving only a single step measurement on the film (sample) as against the standard ASTM methods for the evaluation of these properties, which involve multi-steps and multi-instruments and are quite cumbersome. This method has been tested on a fairly large number of samples produced in a commercial plant, over a period of time and compared well with the corresponding values (properties) determined by the ASTM methods.