Application of infrared spectroscopy and multivariate quality-control methods in PVC manufacturing

This work aims at exploring the potentiality of the Fourier transform IR spectroscopy (FTIR) to study the effects that can be generated on plastic materials based on poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) used for extra-corporal medical disposables, after industrial processes such as extrusion, sterilization and conservation. In particular, FTIR equipped with a single attenuated total reflection accessory (ATR) mounted on an infrared microscope (Mic-IR) has been used. At the same time, this paper proposes a quality-control method for semi-finished blood circuits' components, based on the chemometric evaluation of surface-selective spectroscopic signals, i.e. Mic-IR/ATR spectra. Results suggest that IR spectroscopic technique coupled with a multivariate approach might represent a simple and powerful method for quality control of industrial processes.