A Flow-through Passive Sampler for Microplastics in Air

Abstract

Microplastics (MP) in air have attracted increasing attention because of their ubiquitous presence. Accurate atmospheric concentrations of MP are essential for evaluating their capacity for long-range transport and for assessing human inhalation risk. In order to sample airborne MP in locations with limited power supply, we adapted a flow-through passive sampler by placing a glass fiber filter in the inner sampling tube. To test the new sampler’s performance under field conditions, two sizes of the flow-through sampler (with diameters of 20 and 10 cm) and a conventionally pumped high-volume air sampler were co-deployed on the Lhasa campus of the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research. Accurate sampling volumes could be estimated from a relationship between wind speeds recorded outside and inside of the flow-through sampler. Atmospheric concentrations and compositions of MP that compared favorably with those obtained by active sampling indicate that the larger version of the flow-through passive sampler can provide reproducible and quantitative information on atmospheric MP at sites with limited or unreliable power supply. This capability should be useful in large-scale and high-temporal resolution air monitoring networks for MP.

Microplastic pollution characteristics and its future perspectives in the Tibetan Plateau

“…Only a few studies reported atmospheric deposition of microplastics in the Tibetan Plateau, with fluxes of 5.8-52 items/m 2 /d at the Nam Co basin and 21-26 items/m 2 /d at the Demula glacier [20,77]. Another study reported very low airborne microplastic concentrations of 0.15-0.25 items/m 3 during testing of a flow-through passive sampler in a suburb of Lhasa city [21].…”

“…The shape and color of microplastics in snow/ice were typically fibrous and colorful (e.g., black, blue and red) (Table S4). Both the atmospheric deposited samples collected from the Nam Co basin and airborne samples collected from the Lhasa suburb were dominated by transparent, small size and fibrous microplastics [20,21]. The dominant polymer types of snow/ice, atmospheric deposition and airborne microplastics were highly variable, including PET, PP, PE and cellophane.…”

A bimetallic MOF-derived MnCo spinel oxide catalyst to enhance toluene catalytic degradation

“…However, spinel oxide catalysts still face the disadvantages of high lattice oxygen activation temperatures and low specific surface area. 7 Thus, the preparation of spinel oxides with high specific surface area is an efficient approach to improving catalytic performance.…”