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Detecting and monitoring the leaching of small (¡ 2 µm) microplastics in soils by fluorescence microscopy
Summary
Researchers compared fluorescence microscopy and mu-Raman spectroscopy for detecting the smallest microplastic fraction (1-2 µm) in soils of varying matrix complexity, then used fluorescent microplastics in field conditions to directly measure leaching rates of small particles through soil profiles. The study demonstrated that fluorescence microscopy enables detection and tracking of sub-2 µm microplastics in field soils, providing a practical method for studying the dynamics of the smallest, most mobile plastic fraction in terrestrial environments.
Research on microplastics (MP) in soils is much complicated due to the lack of dedicated (extraction) methodologies and strong matrix interferences for MP detection, and there is almost no research on the dynamics of the smallest MP in soil (¡ 20 µm). In our research we first compared the possible detection of the smallest MP fraction (1-2 µm) by µ-Raman spectroscopy and fluorescence microscopy in matrices of highly varying complexity. Subsequently, we have demonstrated that it is possible to use fluorescent MP to measure the rate of leaching of small MP in soils under field conditions. In a first experiment, samples of pure quartz sand, soils with variable texture (sandy loam, silt, clay) and removal of native soil organic matter (SOM), and a sandy loam soil with native SOM still present were amended with fluorescent polystyrene (PS) microparticles (diameter 1.65±0.04 µm) in different concentrations ranging from 0.1 to 0.001 Also see: https://micro2024.sciencesconf.org/559689/document