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Quality Assurance of Polymer Composition in Footwear by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy and Chemometrics Analysis

Undergraduate #177
Discipline: Chemistry and Chemical Sciences
Subcategory: Chemistry (not Biochemistry)

Valorie Danielle Chasten - North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University
Co-Author(s): Kerani Davidson (1), Tanya Pinder (1), and Sayo O. Fakayode (2) 1. Department of Chemistry, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, 2. Department of Physical Sciences, University of Arkansas at Fort Smith



Polymers have several attractive physical and chemical properties and are widely used for various applications in material science, biomedical, household items, apparel, automobiles, and footwear. However, the global distribution of counterfeited polymers and footwear is problematic resulting in billions of dollars in economic loss to the footwear manufacturing industry. Besides, unsuspected consumers often pay higher prices for substandard and counterfeited footwear. The overall goal of this study is to develop a low-cost, simple, fast and accurate polymer analysis protocol for quality assurance of footwear products. Specifically, 86 different brands of shoe samples were collected from donors across the Greensboro metropolis. Two poly (ethylene vinyl acetate) (EVA) co-polymer reference standards and the insoles of the collected footwear samples were subjected to a Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis in transmittance and absorbance mode. The obtained FTIR spectral were subsequently subjected to a multivariate Principal Component Analysis (PCA) for pattern recognition. In general, C=O (~1700 cm-1), C-H (~2900 cm-1), C-O (~1100 cm-1), and H-O (~3400 cm-1) stretches were the major FTIR absorptions observed in the footwear samples. However, significant differences in the FTIR spectrum were observed in different brands and types of shoes, demonstrating differences in polymer composition of the footwear samples. The result of the PCA analysis is capable of grouping of the shoe samples into different categories (reference standard, dress shoes and sneaker footwear) with excellent accuracy. The simplicity, accuracy, and non-destructive property of the developed protocol in this study makes it appealing for polymer analysis with real-world applications in forensic science and for quality control and assurance of footwear, and material science.

Abstract- Quality Assurance of Polymer Compos.docx

Funder Acknowledgement(s): This research was conducted as a part of NC A&T SU Summer Data Science and Analytics STEM Education Research Program and funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grant HRD#1623358.

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Tanya Pinder, tapinder@ncat.edu

Role: This research by Valorie Chasten included the following task; collection of shoe samples of varying polymer compositions from variety of brands, FTIR spectroscopy transmittance and absorbance data collected to indicate that different types of shoes are made of different polymer compositions, and Chemometric Analysis using Principle Component Analysis to group the shoe samples into different categories (reference standard, dress shoes and sneaker footwear) with good accuracy.

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This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grant No. DUE-1930047. Any opinions, findings, interpretations, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of its authors and do not represent the views of the AAAS Board of Directors, the Council of AAAS, AAAS’ membership or the National Science Foundation.

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