Material Analysis of Microplastics in River Water —FTIR and Pyrolysis-GC-MS Analysis—

User Benefits

- Automated pretreatment of microplastics (MPs) reduces workload and enables highly reproducible pretreatment. - Material analysis of MPs processed by the MAP-100 device can be easily performed by FTIR+ATR. - Highly reproducible GC-MS analysis of MPs is possible by homogeneously pulverizing samples with Cryogenic Mill (IQ MILL-2070). - Pyrolysis-GC-MS can measure the weight of multiple types of plastics even when they are mixed.

Introduction

Microplastics (MPs) are microscopic plastic particles measuring a few µm to 5 mm in size. They are feared to have an impact on ocean pollution and ecosystems. Against this backdrop, surveys and studies on MPs in surface waters such as oceans, rivers, lakes and marshes are being conducted worldwide. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrophotometer (FTIR) is often used for material analysis of MPs. ASTM recently published the D8401-24 standard test method for the qualitative and quantitative determination of MPs in water that uses a pyrolysis gas chromatograph mass spectrometer (Py-GC-MS). In this application news, a sample taken from a river was pretreated and analyzed for MPs using FTIR and Py-GC-MS.

January 21, 2025 GMT