Mikroplastik - Źródła, Techniki Separacji I Identyfikacji

The worldwide extensive consumption of plastic materials, due to the low cost of production and their versatility, causes plastic pollution of the environment. It is one of the most difficult and challenging problems on the Earth, affecting the oceans, land, atmosphere and living matter. An emerging aspect is a microplastic pollution, which has become an intensively researched topic among scientists and organizations. Microplastics (MPs) according to the definition are granules, fibers, and fragments of micropollutants of the upper limit of the contractual size is 5 mm. They can have a primary or secondary origin. Primary microplastics are microscopic granules, or pellets purposedly produced for industrial applications. Secondary microplastics are usually generated by the fragmentation and degradation of plastic waste in the environment (e.g. mechanical abrasion, UV radiation, temperature changes, and biodegradation) or during the use of plastic consumption (Figure 2). Microplastics can impact ecosystems by providing water, delivery and air, and further affect human health by inhaling airborne particles or providing contaminated water and food. There can be identified three major harmful aspects of plastics and microplastics. Firstly, plastics exposed to environmental weathering can undergo degradation and break down from macro to smaller particles. MPs may be transported across the globe, as there were found in the Arctic snow or oceans deep. Second, MPs may adsorb and carry toxic chemical substances (persistent organic pollutants) which are harmful to humans and animals. And last but not least, plastics get to the food chain and air and reach humans through various routes. Many works in the literature describe the procedure of sampling, handling, identifying and quantifying MPs from different environments. Before to the actual analysis, MPs samples are often first fractionated by sieving, and solutions of various densities are also used to separate potential microplastics from other contaminants. Subsequently, the samples are purified in etching media to remove any organic contaminants. The MP identification and characterization procedure is a five-step process. It concerns the analysis of the size, shape, color and amount of plastic particles (expressed as the number or mass of particles per volume or mass of the sample) usually done by microscopy. The identification of the polymer is done by chemical characterization using usually spectroscopic (IR and Raman), chromatographic or thermal methods (Figure 4)