Abstract
Microplastics (MPs, <5 mm) have been reported as emerging environmental contaminants, but reliable data are still lacking. We compared the two most promising techniques for MP analysis, namely, Raman and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, by analyzing MPs extracted from North Sea surface waters. Microplastics >500 μm were visually sorted and manually analyzed by μ-Raman and attenuated total reflection (ATR)-FTIR spectroscopy. Microplastics ≤500 μm were concentrated on gold-coated filters and analyzed by automated single-particle exploration coupled to μ-Raman (ASPEx-μ-Raman) and FTIR imaging (reflection mode). The number of identified MPs >500 μm was slightly higher for μ-Raman (+23%) than ATR-FTIR analysis. Concerning MPs ≤500 μm, ASPEx-μ-Raman quantified two-times higher MP numbers but required a four-times higher analysis time compared to FTIR imaging. Because ASPEx-μ-Raman revealed far higher MP concentrations (38-2621 particles m-3) compared to the results of previous water studies (0-559 particles m-3), the environmental concentration of MPs ≤500 μm may have been underestimated until now. This may be attributed to the exceptional increase in concentration with decreasing MP size found in this work. Our results demonstrate the need for further research to enable time-efficient routine application of ASPEx-μ-Raman for reliable MP counting down to 1 μm.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Environmental Science and Technology |
| Volume | 52 |
| Issue number | 22 |
| Pages (from-to) | 13279-13288 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| ISSN | 0013-936X |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 20 Nov 2018 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We thank the team of the Heincke cruise HE430 for collection of the surface water sample in the southern North Sea in 2014 and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research for the funding (FKZ Project of JPI O BASEMAN - Defining the baselines and standards for microplastics analyses in European waters, BMBF grant 03F0734A). Further thanks to Prof. Dr. Gerhard Furrer from ETH Zurich for supervision of the master thesis of Livia Cabernard. Claudia Lorenz was financed by a Ph.D. scholarship of the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU). The Single Particle Explorer for Life & Science was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (FKZ Project of JPI O BASEMAN - Defining the baselines and standards for microplastics analyses in European waters, BMBF grant 03F0734A).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 American Chemical Society.