Total reflection X-ray fluorescence polymer spectra: classification by taxonomy statistic tools

The aim of this work is to explore the use of chemometric tools for the classification of synthetic and natural polymers with a mean molecular weight greater than 106. Total Reflection X-Ray Fluorescence (TXRF) spectra were obtained and analyzed in order to retrieve matrix information and to illustrate the calibration procedure. The intensities of the coherent and incoherent scattered peaks were specially selected for this purpose. The polymers studied were aqueous solutions of scleroglucan, polyacrilamide, polyoxyethylene oxide, glucomannan, 2,3,6-tri-o-ethylamylose and xhantan, in concentrations upto 1% (m/m). matlab software was used for numerical calculations. Using a combination of principal component analysis and cluster analysis, the differences in composition of various analyzed polymers can be visualized.