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Sampling and Detection of Microplastics in the Atmosphere
Summary
This chapter reviews how airborne microplastics are collected and identified, covering both passive methods (like deposition traps) and active sampling, along with analytical techniques such as FTIR spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy. Standardizing these methods is critical for accurately measuring human exposure through inhalation — currently one of the least understood routes of microplastic entry into the body.
The abundance of microplastics around the globe has seriously threatened living organisms from soils to aquatic systems. Microplastics have been detected in the digestive tracts of various animals. Even indoor dust has been reported as a undeniable source of microplastic exposure for humans. Commonly, plastic particles with sizes ranging between 5 and 100 nm are considered microplastics. Microplastics are broadly divided into two categories: primary and secondary. Primary microplastics are deliberately produced for particular applications (like microbeads used in cosmetics), and secondary microplastics are generated through fragmentation of macroplastics (e.g. fibres) due to degradation. To assess and identify microplastics in the atmosphere, a number of sampling methods (both active and passive) and various modern detection techniques (such as thermochemical methods, Fourier transform infrared [FTIR], Raman spectroscopy, GC–MS, etc.) have been employed. This chapter discusses the present state of knowledge about atmospheric microplastics, sample collection methods, and important detection and analytical techniques.