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Microplastics and fly-ash particles from Santos–Cubatão estuarine system, southeastern Brazil.
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Scientists dug into a 260-centimeter-deep mud sample from a Brazilian river to see how long plastic pollution and coal-burning ash have been building up over time. They found layers of tiny plastic bits and industrial soot particles buried in the sediment, showing this pollution has been accumulating for years and doesn't just disappear, a reminder that what we release into waterways can stick around in the environment long-term.
Microplastics and fly-ash particles (inorganic ash spheres - IASs and spherical carbonaceous particles - SCPs) were sampled from a 260-cm sediment profile collected from the Morrão River, located in the Santos–Cubatão estuarine system, southeastern Brazil. The repository includes: • Visual identification and morphometric data of particles • µ-FTIR spectra for polymer identification For visual identification, particles were manually separated under a Zeiss stereomicroscope (Carl Zeiss GmbH) equipped with an Axiocam 705 digital camera. Image acquisition and measurements were performed using ZEISS ZEN 3.11 image analysis software. All visually identified particles were classified into the following categories: • Laboratory contamination • Fly-ash particles (IASs or SCPs) • Microplastics • Non-plastic particles (e.g., organic matter, mineral particles, charcoal) Particles classified as microplastics were further characterized according to: • Morphological type (fiber, fragment, film, pellet, foam) • Shape • Color (visual assessment under white light) • Size (major and minor axes) For polymer composition, microplastics were analyzed using micro-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (µ-FTIR). Analyses were conducted with an Agilent Cary 630 FTIR spectrometer coupled to a Cary 610 FTIR microscope equipped with an attenuated total reflectance (ATR) accessory. Fly-ash particles were analysed using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) coupled with Energy-Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS) with a JEOL JSM-IT500HR microscope. Analytical parameters (µ-FTIR): • Spectral range: 4000–550 cm⁻¹ • Spectral resolution: 4 cm⁻¹ • Background spectrum collected prior to measurements For questions regarding this dataset: p118405@dac.unicamp.br
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