Introduction to different instrumental analythical measurementsof polyolefins at Petrochemicals Division

A wide variety of modern tools are available for the analysis of plastics. Almost the same equipments and methods can be used, which are applied at the general organic and inorganic chemistry.

Physical analysis refers to the evaluation of the physical behaviour of the material. Properties such as strength, thermal behaviour and flow properties fall into this category,
as do failure and morphological characteristics. The equipments used in this category are mechanical testing devices, impact testers, softening testers, thermal analyzers, melt index
tester, rheometers. Chemical analysis seeks to evaluate the compositional characteristics of the polymer. The equipments used in this category are different chromatograpy, spectroscopic and spectrometric methods. The combination of the physical and chemical approaches has been used successfully to correlate the behaviour of plastics to their composition.

Zsuzsanna Havas, Péter Suba