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Studying the concentration of polymers in blended microplastics using 2D and 3D Raman mapping

Scientific Reports 2023 11 citations ? Citation count from OpenAlex, updated daily. May differ slightly from the publisher's own count. Score: 40 ? 0–100 AI score estimating relevance to the microplastics field. Papers below 30 are filtered from public browse.

Mehrdad Lotfi Choobbari, Mehrdad Lotfi Choobbari, Mehrdad Lotfi Choobbari, Mehrdad Lotfi Choobbari, Mehrdad Lotfi Choobbari, Mehrdad Lotfi Choobbari, Mehrdad Lotfi Choobbari, Mehrdad Lotfi Choobbari, Jennifer Ferguson, Mehrdad Lotfi Choobbari, Mehrdad Lotfi Choobbari, Jennifer Ferguson, Jennifer Ferguson, Niko Van den Brande, Heidi Ottevaere Heidi Ottevaere Wendy Meulebroeck, Wendy Meulebroeck, Tatevik Chalyan, Tatevik Chalyan, Tatevik Chalyan, Tatevik Chalyan, Niko Van den Brande, Heidi Ottevaere Heidi Ottevaere Heidi Ottevaere Wendy Meulebroeck, Heidi Ottevaere Wendy Meulebroeck, T. J. Smith, T. J. Smith, T. J. Smith, Mehrdad Lotfi Choobbari, Heidi Ottevaere Tatevik Chalyan, Heidi Ottevaere Heidi Ottevaere Tatevik Chalyan, Tatevik Chalyan, Wendy Meulebroeck, Wendy Meulebroeck, Heidi Ottevaere Wendy Meulebroeck, Heidi Ottevaere Heidi Ottevaere Wendy Meulebroeck, Heidi Ottevaere Wendy Meulebroeck, Wendy Meulebroeck, Heidi Ottevaere Heidi Ottevaere Wendy Meulebroeck, Heidi Ottevaere Heidi Ottevaere Heidi Ottevaere Heidi Ottevaere

Summary

Scientists developed a 3D Raman mapping approach to measure the composition of "blended" microplastics — particles made from mixtures of different polymers rather than a single plastic type. Because blended plastics are extremely common in real-world pollution, the new technique provides a more accurate picture of what microplastic particles are actually made of, which is critical for assessing their chemical risks and environmental persistence.

Polymers

LDPE PE PP

The combination of different polymers in the form of blended plastics has been used in the plastic industry for a long time. Nevertheless, analyses of microplastics (MPs) have been mainly limited to the study of particles made of single-type polymers. Accordingly, two members of the Polyolefins (POs) family, i.e., Polypropylene (PP) and Low-density Polyethylene (LDPE) are blended and extensively studied in this work due to their applications in industry as well as abundance in the environment. It is shown that 2-D Raman mapping only provides information about the surface of blended MPs (B-MPs). While complimentary 3-D volume analysis is needed to fully understand the presence of various polymers in such complex samples. Therefore, 3-D Raman mapping is applied to visualize the morphology of the distribution of polymers within the B-MPs together with the quantitative estimation of their concentrations. A parameter defined as the concentration estimate error (CEE) evaluates the precision of the quantitative analysis. Furthermore, the impact of four excitation wavelengths 405, 532, 633, and 785 nm is investigated on the obtained results. Finally, the application of a line-shaped laser beam profile (line-focus) is introduced for reducing the measurement time from 56 to 2 h.

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