Determining Ash in Plastics with Thermogravimetry

Determining the filler content of plastic is an important aspect of quality control monitoring. Ash is the inorganic remainder that is left after heating a polymer at high temperatures to remove the presence of water and organic matter. Ash content of a plastic is reflective of the relative filler content in that plastic and can be used as a quality control parameter. The standard test method for ash content analysis is thermogravimetric analysis (TGA).