Process analysis of polymers by NIR spectroscopy

the possibility of in-line NIR process spectroscopy on polymers opens up new perspectives of process analysis in the production and processing of polymers. Polymer melts, e.g, in extrusion processes, can be investigated in-line by transmission spectroscopy for transparent melts and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy for opaque melts. The quantitative analysis is carried out using chemometric methods, e.g. the Partial Least Squares method (PLS) and Principle Component Regression (PCR). Our results show, that NIR spectroscopy with transmission and diffuse reflectance probes is suitable for quantitative in-line process analysis of multicomponent polymer mixtures.