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Identification of microfibers in drinking water with Nile Red. Limitations and strengths
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Researchers examined microfiber levels in raw and treated drinking water at a Spanish treatment plant, finding the facility removed 86% of microfibers but still delivered 613 fibers per liter to consumers. They also tested Nile Red dye as a detection tool, finding it useful not just for identifying microplastics but also for assessing their degree of environmental degradation.
Traditional drinking water treatment plants (DWTP) are not specifically designed for removing microplastics (MPs) from drinking water. Therefore, this emergent contaminant has been identified in water sources and final drinking water. Microfibers from plastic-based materials are a relevant category of MPs that has attracted attention in recent studies due to their significant presence in environmental samples. This study investigated the presence of microfibers (> 10 µm) in the raw water and the final drinking water of a DWTP located in Spain. It was observed that the DWTP studied was capable of removing 86% of microfibers from raw water. Even with this high removal rate, an amount of 613 microfibers/L (including natural, artificial, and synthetic materials) was counted in drinking water after disinfection. The reactive Nile Red was tested to investigate its use for staining microfibers from the mentioned DWTP and also from tap and bottled water samples in order to identify them. It was observed that microfibers from environmental samples can have different manifestations of fluorescence compared to pristine polymers, and it could be related to degrees of degradation and/or adsorption of organic and inorganic material on the microfibers’ surfaces. For this reason, the use of Nile Red could help understand the levels of degradation of these materials in the environment, and thus its use could go beyond the identification of MPs, which was initially proposed in previous studies.
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This study optimized the concentration of Nile red fluorescent dye for pre-screening microplastics in drinking water, establishing a protocol that balances detection sensitivity with background fluorescence to improve accuracy in identifying plastic particles.
Advances in analysis of microplastics in drinking water treatment plants. Fluorescence techniques using iDye Pink
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Microplastics between 0.1 and 5 mm were detected at multiple stages of three drinking water treatment plants, with Nile Red fluorescence staining and spectroscopic techniques showing that while treatment reduces MP loads, particles persist into final treated water.
Detection and Occurrence of Microplastics through Municipal and Pilot-scale Drinking Water Treatment Plants
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Researchers developed a new method for detecting and characterizing microplastics in drinking water samples from municipal and private treatment systems. They found microplastics in treated drinking water, though at lower concentrations than in source water, and identified fibers as the most common type. The study demonstrates that conventional water treatment does not completely remove microplastics from drinking water.
Detection of microplastics particles in the aquatic environment by staining
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Using a simple Nile red fluorescent staining method and a standard fluorescence microscope, researchers detected microplastics in both surface reservoir water and treated drinking water before it entered city supply systems in two Russian industrial cities. The finding that microplastics survive conventional water treatment underlines the need for official monitoring standards in Russia and, more broadly, raises questions about the extent to which drinking water is a route of human microplastic exposure worldwide.
Exploring Nile Red staining as an analytical tool for surface-oxidized microplastics
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Scientists evaluated Nile Red, a fluorescent dye commonly used to detect microplastics, and found it works differently depending on whether microplastics have been weathered by the environment. Surface oxidation from aging in the environment changes how well the dye sticks to plastics, which means current detection methods may be undercounting weathered microplastics in environmental samples.
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