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Laboratory Designed Portable Device for Density Separation and Characterization of Microplastics in Environmental Soil Samples
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Scientists designed a small, portable device for extracting microplastics from soil and sediment samples using a density separation method with different salt solutions, successfully isolating PET, LDPE, PVC, and PP from samples collected in school yards, lakesides, and agricultural fields. A portable, low-cost device lowers the barrier to field-based microplastic monitoring and could enable wider participation in pollution surveys.
Microplastics (MPs) can be found everywhere in our environment. Due to the massive use and incorrect handling of plastics, we need to find a practical and effective way to isolate and characterize them by highlighting their distribution pattern in the environmental system. In this study, the density separation method isolates different MPs in the collected soil samples from different areas using a small portable device designed to separate MPs from sediments. This modified approach for extracting MPs from soils and sediments combines different salts. Different MPs are isolated, such as PET MPs isolated in soil samples collected from school premises, LDPE MPs in soil samples collected from a lake and its surroundings, PVC MPs in soil samples collected from agricultural lands, PP MPs in soil samples collected from Palar river, PS MPs in industrial soil samples, PA MPs in garbage area soil samples, PC MPs in synthetic textile area soil samples, and PMMA MPs in soil samples collected from school agricultural mulching areas. All the isolated MPs are characterized using UV-vis, FTIR, SEM, Raman, and p-XRD analyses. Our findings suggest that environmental soil samples have many types of MPs with different shapes. This research output would help regulatory bodies isolate and characterize different MPs in environmental samples. More research is required to isolate and characterize MPs with sizes of less than 1 mm.
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