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MICROPLASTICS IDENTIFICATION IN LANDFILL LEACHATES BY DIFFERENT SPECTROSCOPIC TECHNIQUES

Simongini, Camilla ; Pucetaite, Milda LU ; Serranti, Silvia ; van Praagh, Martijn LU ; Hammer, Edith C. LU and Bonifazi, Giuseppe (2022) In Detritus 18. p.58-69
Abstract
Discovered more than 40 years ago, microplastics have become a major environmental issue. With increasing global plastic production, microplastics are of growing concern. Landfills have been pinpointed as primary sources of microplastics to surface waters and they have, in fact, been identified and quantified as such. Due to their small size, different polymers and interfering non-plastic materials, microplastics are difficult to analyse in a complex matrix such as leachate. To elucidate the impact of pre-treatment on the performance of the most common microspectroscopical analytical methods employed, i.e., FT-IR and Raman, we re-examined previously pre-treated and analysed leachate samples. Additionally, we subjected duplicates of... (More)
Discovered more than 40 years ago, microplastics have become a major environmental issue. With increasing global plastic production, microplastics are of growing concern. Landfills have been pinpointed as primary sources of microplastics to surface waters and they have, in fact, been identified and quantified as such. Due to their small size, different polymers and interfering non-plastic materials, microplastics are difficult to analyse in a complex matrix such as leachate. To elucidate the impact of pre-treatment on the performance of the most common microspectroscopical analytical methods employed, i.e., FT-IR and Raman, we re-examined previously pre-treated and analysed leachate samples. Additionally, we subjected duplicates of previously analysed samples to different concentrations of H2O2 with varied reaction times to digest and remove non-plastic organic matter. The pre-treated samples were subjected density separation and (re-)analysed by means of FT-IR and Raman microspectroscopy. Larger particles were also analysed by near-infrared (NIR) hyperspectral imaging. We found the concentration of H2O2 to impact the possibility of identifying and quantifying PET particles, with Raman scattering microspectroscopy enabling more particles to be counted than with FT-IR. This is likely due to the increased detectable particle size range, from around 50 μm for FT-IR to 1 μm for Raman scattering microspectroscopy. Optimized H2O2 concentration with subsequent density separation enabled to clearly identify numerous PE particles, but also PP, PS, and PET particles and carbon compounds with Raman scattering microspectroscopy. Hyperspectral imaging performed well for particles larger than 30 μm. (Less)
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author
; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Detritus
volume
18
pages
58 - 69
publisher
IWWG - International Waste Working Group
external identifiers
  • scopus:85128300558
ISSN
2611-4135
DOI
10.31025/2611-4135/2022.15169
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
075ad9e6-19c6-49ca-a799-8de66ba44345
date added to LUP
2022-06-12 14:30:03
date last changed
2024-05-13 13:58:02
@article{075ad9e6-19c6-49ca-a799-8de66ba44345,
  abstract     = {{Discovered more than 40 years ago, microplastics have become a major environmental issue. With increasing global plastic production, microplastics are of growing concern. Landfills have been pinpointed as primary sources of microplastics to surface waters and they have, in fact, been identified and quantified as such. Due to their small size, different polymers and interfering non-plastic materials, microplastics are difficult to analyse in a complex matrix such as leachate. To elucidate the impact of pre-treatment on the performance of the most common microspectroscopical analytical methods employed, i.e., FT-IR and Raman, we re-examined previously pre-treated and analysed leachate samples. Additionally, we subjected duplicates of previously analysed samples to different concentrations of H2O2 with varied reaction times to digest and remove non-plastic organic matter. The pre-treated samples were subjected density separation and (re-)analysed by means of FT-IR and Raman microspectroscopy. Larger particles were also analysed by near-infrared (NIR) hyperspectral imaging. We found the concentration of H2O2 to impact the possibility of identifying and quantifying PET particles, with Raman scattering microspectroscopy enabling more particles to be counted than with FT-IR. This is likely due to the increased detectable particle size range, from around 50 μm for FT-IR to 1 μm for Raman scattering microspectroscopy. Optimized H2O2 concentration with subsequent density separation enabled to clearly identify numerous PE particles, but also PP, PS, and PET particles and carbon compounds with Raman scattering microspectroscopy. Hyperspectral imaging performed well for particles larger than 30 μm.}},
  author       = {{Simongini, Camilla and Pucetaite, Milda and Serranti, Silvia and van Praagh, Martijn and Hammer, Edith C. and Bonifazi, Giuseppe}},
  issn         = {{2611-4135}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{58--69}},
  publisher    = {{IWWG - International Waste Working Group}},
  series       = {{Detritus}},
  title        = {{MICROPLASTICS IDENTIFICATION IN LANDFILL LEACHATES BY DIFFERENT SPECTROSCOPIC TECHNIQUES}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.31025/2611-4135/2022.15169}},
  doi          = {{10.31025/2611-4135/2022.15169}},
  volume       = {{18}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}