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Improvement of flotation-sieving method for extracting soil microplastics and delineating measurable particle-size fractions
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Researchers refined a flotation-sieving extraction method for soil microplastics by collecting suspended particles from the top 10 cm of soil suspension rather than the surface film alone, boosting recovery of small particles (53–149 µm) from below 60% to above 80% for HDPE and PP, while identifying a higher measurable detection limit for LDPE.
This study developed a mass-based quantification approach combined with a modified flotation-sieving method to determine microplastics (MPs) of low-density polyethylene (LDPE), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), and polypropylene (PP) in soils. MPs extraction was improved at three levels: (1) the standard procedure to collect floating MPs from the surface of the soil suspension, (2) a optimized procedure to collect suspended MPs from the top 10 cm of the soil suspension, and (3) determination of the measurable MPs limits. Three particle-size ranges (0.053-0.149 mm, 0.149-2 mm, and 2-5 mm) and three farmland soils were used to prepare MPs-spiked samples. Results showed that for 1% MPs-spiked soil of LDPE, HDPE, and PP with particle sizes larger than 0.15 mm, the standard extraction achieved recoveries exceeding 90%. For particle sizes of 0.053-0.149 mm, the standard extraction yielded recoveries below 60%. Using the optimized extraction, recoveries of small particles (0.053-0.149 mm) increased to over 80% for HDPE and PP but not for LDPE. This indicates that the measurable limits for the former two but not for the latter could approach 1% in soil. Further testing for LDPE in soils spiked with 2%, 5%, and 10% MPs showed recoveries of small particles above 80%, indicating a measurable limit of approximately 2%.
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