I recently ran an FTIR analysis to identify two unknown microplastics. The result indicates a matching percentage of over 50% with polyethylene for both particles. However, I wonder if these matching percentages are sufficient to report the type of polymer.
what is the matching percentage generally accepted by journals?
You should look for the correlation values. Samples that are very similar to a reference material included within the library should have correlation values between 0.96 and 0.98. Under 0.9 you have a different material.
You should consider the correlation as mentioned above. However, libraries such as Perkin Elmer ATR-FTIR shows reliable identification material up to 85%. I'd recommend you to read this article http://www.pelagicos.net/Reprints/2018/Jung_et_al._2018_MarPollBull.pdf
In FTIR, a good match is assumed to be over 90%, if it is over 80%, there may be contamination of the main material. A match around 50% should not be considered.
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