Development of a rapid detection protocol for microplastics using reflectance-FTIR spectroscopic imaging and multivariate classification

Abstract

Microplastics present a serious and worsening environmental threat to marine and aquatic ecosystems. Continued monitoring is crucial in assessing the hazards and provenance of plastics. Unfortunately, analytical methods that are...

Microplastic occurrence in sediments of informal settlement in Durban, South Africa: assessing the ocean impact in the aftermath of floods

“…The construction of an in-house database of microplastics was established using plastic waste collected from a dumpsite upstream of the Palmiet River. 28 Different product containers were collected from the dumpsite, including containers for food products, cosmetic products, trash bags, takeaways, and food containers. The source of this garbage can be traced to people living upstream of the informal settlement and the demographic of these people is the same as that downstream.…”

“…3,14,27 However, analytical methods for the quantitative extraction of microplastics from sediments are lacking. 28,29 Techniques for sampling the top layer of sediments are crucial, as they result from deposition during ooding. It is imperative to isolate these top layers to obtain distribution data during such events.…”

Generation of macro- and microplastic databases by high-throughput FTIR analysis with microplate readers

“…They can also be highly abundant [ 12 ], leading to a significant amount of time in manual spectral characterization. Standard attenuated total reflection (ATR) measurement techniques for these larger particles require a long time [ 13 ] (in our case, an average of 10 min per particle) to collect a quality particle spectrum, which must be redone if anything goes wrong (e.g., unaligned detector) during spectral collection. This is because the spectroscopist must manually focus the ATR on every particle individually and stay with the device while it collects the spectra.…”

“…The lack of reference spectral libraries for reflection and transmission spectral collection modes is one of the largest barriers to utilizing FTIR plate readers in plastic pollution research [ 13 , 21 ]. Reflection and transmission spectra can differ from the ATR spectra commonly included in commercial and open-source databases [ 22 ].…”