Microplastics in the environment: Sampling, pretreatment, analysis and occurrence based on current and newly-exploited chromatographic approaches

Ainali, Nina Maria; Kalaronis, Dimitrios; Kontogiannis, Antonios; Εvgenidou, Εleni; Kyzas, George Z.; Yang, Xin; Bikiaris, Dimitrios N.; Lambropoulou, Dimitra A.

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.148725

Cited by 33 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 115 publications

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“…In addition to the classic pretreatments of digestion of the organic matter (oxidants, acid, and basic reagents), some solutions were proposed to reduce the interferences, reviewed by Ainali et al [47]. Although these strategies can provide an improvement in the analysis, the presence of interfering organic compounds cannot be fully avoided.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantification of Microplastics by Pyrolysis Coupled with Gas Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry in Sediments: Challenges and Implications

et al. 2022

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Pyrolysis-GC/MS is increasingly used to quantify microplastics (MP) in environmental samples. In general, prior to analysis, purification steps are carried out to reduce the environmental matrix in sediment samples. The conventionally used protocol of density separation followed by digestion of organic matter does not allow for complete isolation of MP from the associated organic and mineral matter. Among the pyrolysis products used as indicator compounds for plastic polymers, some may originate from other substances present in the environmental samples. In this paper, the indicator compounds are reviewed for the most common polymers: PE, PP, PS, PET and PVC and selected taking into account potential interactions with substances present in environmental matrices. Even after a purification step, a residual mineral fraction remains in a sediment sample, including matrix effects. This effect may be positive or negative, depending on the investigated polymer and is thus important to consider when using Pyr-GC/MS for the quantification of MP in sediment samples. It also shows that no external calibration can be used to reliably quantify MP in such samples and that the use of internal standards is compulsory.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantification of Microplastics by Pyrolysis Coupled with Gas Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry in Sediments: Challenges and Implications

et al. 2022

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“…In both cases, the amount of microplastics is analyzed by the number of ions released through pyrolysis or thermal desorption [110]. Advantages of GC/MS over FTIR and Raman spectroscopy can analyze both qualitative and quantitative analysis of small microplastics size (<10 µg) with a small sample volume of microplastics, because of its high sensitivity [135]. However, GC/MS is destructive, resulting in the total loss of the particle and subsequently eliminating further particle analysis [125].…”

Section: Gc/ms Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Review of Microplastic Distribution, Toxicity, Analysis Methods, and Removal Technologies

Park¹,

Park²

2021

Water

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Microplastic contamination has become a problem, as plastic production has increased worldwide. Microplastics are plastics with particles of less than 5 mm and are absorbed through soil, water, atmosphere, and living organisms and finally affect human health. However, information on the distribution, toxicity, analytical methods, and removal techniques for microplastics is insufficient. For clear microplastic analytical methods and removal technologies, this article includes the following: (1) The distribution and contamination pathways of microplastics worldwide are reviewed. (2) The health effects and toxicity of microplastics were researched. (3) The sampling, pretreatment, and analytical methods of microplastics were all reviewed through various related articles. (4) The various removal techniques of microplastics were categorized by wastewater treatment process, physical treatment, chemical treatment, and biological treatment. This paper will be of great help to microplastic analysis and removal techniques.

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“…This will lead to a fingerprint of the products, the chromatogram. Later, the spectrometric detection results in a mass spectrum, typical of the volatile residues caused by MS [ 55 ]. This technique is able to boost the sensitivity of the analysis, even when dealing with samples from complex environmental matrixes, and it can be combined with other methods, such as atomic force microscopy-based infrared spectroscopy (AFM-IR) [ 56 ] or µ-FTIR [ 57 ] in order to gather insights about micro- and nanoplastics’ size and shape, since this information is lost during pyrolysis along with number of particles [ 58 ] due to the fact that this characterization method is destructive and may alter the chemistry of the samples [ 59 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identification of Plastics in Mixtures and Blends through Pyrolysis-Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry

Gnoffo,

Frache

2023

Polymers

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In this paper, the possibility of detecting polymers in plastic mixtures and extruded blends has been investigated. Pyrolysis–gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (py-GC/MS) allows researchers to identify multicomponent mixtures and low amounts of polymers without high spatial resolution, background noise and constituents mix interfering, as with molecular spectrometry techniques normally used for this purpose, such as Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Raman spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). In total, 15 solid mixtures of low-density polyethylene (LDPE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS), polyamide (PA) and polycarbonate (PC) in various combinations have been qualitatively analyzed after choosing their characteristic pyrolysis products and each polymer has been detected in every mix; thus, in extruded blends of high-density polyethylene (HDPE), PP and PS had varying weight percentages of the individual constituents ranging from 10 up to 90. Moreover, quantitative analysis of these polymers has been achieved in every blend with a trend that can be considered linear with coefficients of determination higher than 0.9, even though the limits of quantification are lower with respect to the ones reported in the literature, probably due to the extrusion process.

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Microplastics in the environment: Sampling, pretreatment, analysis and occurrence based on current and newly-exploited chromatographic approaches

Cited by 33 publications

References 115 publications

Quantification of Microplastics by Pyrolysis Coupled with Gas Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry in Sediments: Challenges and Implications

Quantification of Microplastics by Pyrolysis Coupled with Gas Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry in Sediments: Challenges and Implications

Review of Microplastic Distribution, Toxicity, Analysis Methods, and Removal Technologies

Identification of Plastics in Mixtures and Blends through Pyrolysis-Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry

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