Challenge for the detection of microplastics in the environment

Abstract

As an emerging contaminant in the environment, microplastics have attracted worldwide attention. Although research methods on microplastics in the environment have been reported extensively, the data on microplastics obtained cannot be comparable due to different methods. In this work, we critically reviewed the analytical methods of microplastics, including sample collection, separation, identification, and quantification. Manta trawl and tweezers or cassette corers are used to collect water samples and sediments, respectively. For biota sample, internal organs need to be dissected and separated to obtain microplastics. Density differences are often used to separate microplastics from the sample matrix. Visual classification is one of the most common methods for identifying microplastics, and it can be better detected by combining it with other instruments. However, they are not suitable for detection nanoplastics, which may lead to underestimation of risk. The abundance of microplastics varies with the detection method. Thus, the analytical methods for microplastics need to be standardized as soon as possible. Meanwhile, new methods for analyzing nanoplastics are urgently needed. © 2019 Water Environment Federation • Practitioner points • Sampling, separation, identification, and quantification are important procedures. • The sampling and separation methods for microplastics need to be standardized. • The organic matter can be removed by digestion to facilitate identification. • Combine microscope with analytical instruments to better identify microplastics. • There is still a challenge to quantification of smaller-sized plastic particles.

Seafood Processing, Preservation, and Analytical Techniques in the Age of Industry 4.0

“…Microplastics in marine ecosystems are those small plastic fragments that can be consumed by aquatic species (e.g., fish, shellfish, marine invertebrates) and transferred along the food chain to human beings [112][113][114][115]. To detect and identify microplastics, several approaches have been developed, ranging from the simple visual inspection to more advanced techniques, such as chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry and spectroscopic techniques [114,[116][117][118][119]. A recent application with HSI was proposed by Zhang et al [120] to evaluate in-line microplastic contamination (quantification and identification) of Carassius carassius.…”

Microplastics in mangroves and coral reef ecosystems: a review

“…Asamoah et al 2021) by modifying and optimizing the commercially available ones, and when applied for microplastics detection in environmental samples, the modified technique rapidly detected the smaller sized microplastics of about 100 µm in size (Zhu et al 2021). Staining using dyes such as Nile Red, and detecting them based on their fluorescence properties, are used in some studies for easier detection of microplastics, but this technique may be inappropriate when microplastics have low hydrophobicity (Costa et al 2021;Lv et al 2021). A list of detection techniques that have been used till now for analysing microplastics in environmental samples, have been summarized in Table 2.…”

Micro and Nano-Plastics in the Environment: Research Priorities for the Near Future

“…Large MPs (1-5 mm) are usually identified by optical microscopes (sizes usually > 100 μm) or using the naked eye detection for differentiation from non-plastic materials. This approach allows evaluating colour, shape, size, and number of plastic particles and, accordingly, several guidelines have been reported for harmonizing the visual identification of MP particles (Lv et al 2020). Dyes (e.g.…”

“…Larger particles can be analysed by attenuated total reflectance (ATR) FTIR spectroscopy with high speed and accuracy (200 µm -5000 µm). Depending on the setup of the application, small particles can also be measured only down to the range of 20 µm (reflectance or transmittance modes) due to the diffraction limit (Lv et al 2020). Recently, the combination of FTIR with an IR microscope (single point, focal plane array or linear array) has emerged as micro-FTIR for the characterization of samples with sizes down to 10 μm (Löder et al 2015).…”