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Challenges of Raman spectra to estimate carbonyl index of microplastics: A case study with environmental samples from sea surface

Marine Pollution Bulletin 2023 27 citations

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Researchers assessed the feasibility of using carbonyl index (CI) values from Raman spectra as an indicator of polyethylene microplastic degradation, comparing them to CI values from FTIR spectra on the same environmental seawater samples. Despite some correlations observed between the two methods, the weak functional relationships suggest Raman CI cannot reliably substitute for FTIR CI as a degradation indicator.

Polymers
Study Type Environmental

This study investigates the feasibility of using the carbonyl index (CI) derived from Raman spectra as an indicator of plastic degradation and its relationship with the CI calculated from Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra, using microplastic samples of polyethylene (PE) from surface seawater. Multiple methods were used to calculate the CI values of FTIR spectra, while proposed methods were used to calculate the corresponding CI values of Raman spectra. Some significant relations between FTIR CI and Raman CI were observed. However, small R values suggest weak functional relationships, which can be attributed to the low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of Raman spectra. These results highlight the challenges of establishing a functional relationship between FTIR CI and Raman CI, including challenges such as the uniformity of Raman spectra, determining optimal Raman measurement parameters, selecting appropriate peaks for Raman CI calculation, deciding on spectral processing methods, and addressing the interdependence of these issues.

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