Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy for plastic analysis

The huge consumption of modern plastic with improper disposals has posed a great threat to the environment and human beings. To put these post-consumer plastics into the recycling chain, laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has been established as a potential tool for rapid grading of plastics online. Meanwhile, LIBS is a powerful tool for plastic investigations in the laboratory with the capacity of simultaneous qualitative and quantitative analysis. The present review describes the development and prospect of plastic investigations using LIBS, highlighting the intrinsic advantages of LIBS for plastic recycling. Moreover, the selection of hardware components and analysis methods are discussed, which may help to start a research on plastic using LIBS.