A critical assessment of visual identification of marine microplastic using Raman spectroscopy for analysis improvement
Identification and characterisation of microplastic (MP) is a necessary step to evaluate their concentrations, chemical composition and interactions with biota. MP ≥10 μm diameter filtered from below the sea surface in the European and subtropical North Atlantic were simultaneously identified by vis...
| Published in: | Marine Pollution Bulletin |
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| Main Authors: | , , , , |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2015
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://orbit.dtu.dk/en/publications/706ba083-3038-4e1b-9a0b-66997d8f10db https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2015.09.026 |
| Summary: | Identification and characterisation of microplastic (MP) is a necessary step to evaluate their concentrations, chemical composition and interactions with biota. MP ≥10 μm diameter filtered from below the sea surface in the European and subtropical North Atlantic were simultaneously identified by visual microscopy and Raman micro-spectroscopy. Visually identified particles below 100 μm had a significantly lower percentage confirmed by Raman than larger ones indicating that visual identification alone is inappropriate for studies on small microplastics. Sixty-eight percent of visually counted MP (n = 1279) were spectroscopically confirmed being plastic. The percentage varied with type, colour and size of the MP. Fibres had a higher success rate (75%) than particles (64%).We tested Raman micro-spectroscopy applicability for MP identification with respect to varying chemical composition (additives), degradation state and organic matter coating. Partially UV-degraded postconsumer plastics provided identifiable Raman spectra for polymers most common among marine MP, i.e. polyethylene and polypropylene |
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