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Indoor PM10 Microplastic Pollution in a University Dormitory: Morphology, Source Identification, and Implications for Particle Transport Modeling
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Researchers measured airborne dust in a university dormitory room and found many particles were likely tiny plastic fragments, mostly irregular, flake-shaped pieces matching polyethylene plastic materials found indoors. They also found that assuming these particles are perfectly round, as is common in air quality models, can cause significant errors in predicting how they move through indoor air.
This study systematically investigated the PM10 pollution characteristics (with a focus on inhalable microplastic particles) in a university dormitory, with particular emphasis on particle’s morphology, composition, source, and aerodynamic behavior. Three independent 24 h sampling events using the PM10 sampling system yielded PM10 concentrations of 0.1065, 0.0995, and 0.1111 mg/m3 (0.1057 ± 0.0058 mg/m3, mean ± sample SD, n = 3), showing a mild-pollution tendency relative to the 0.1 mg/m3 reference value. Morphological analysis of 101 particles based on scanning electron microscopy (SEM) demonstrated that approximately 44.6% of the particles had projected circularity C < 0.75, with a predominance of flake-like structures, suggesting that particle geometry in indoor environments is highly irregular and cannot be adequately represented by the conventional spherical assumption. Further compositional characterization using correlative SEM–Raman spectroscopy at seven characteristic points selected from visually identified flake-like suspect particles showed PE-like spectra at six points, supporting the presence of PE among the analyzed suspect particles. Spectral comparison with potential indoor materials showed features consistent with PE-containing plastic materials in the dormitory and provided preliminary source indications. In addition, a comparative analysis of drag force, incorporating both shape factor and equivalent diameter, demonstrated that the discrepancy between spherical and non-spherical particles increases significantly with decreasing shape-factor input. When the input value is below 0.4, the deviation exceeds 20%, indicating that the commonly adopted spherical particle assumption may lead to substantial errors in calculating drag for indoor particle transport modeling. These findings highlight the importance of particle morphology and indoor sources in indoor air quality studies.
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