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On the Potential for Optical Detection of Microplastics in the Ocean
Summary
This study examines the potential for optical methods to detect microplastics in ocean water at large spatial scales, noting that while optical detection is promising for overcoming the limitations of discrete water sampling, methods remain in early development and reference libraries of microplastic optical properties are sparse.
Since the advent of industrial manufacturing of petroleum-based plastics, their use in everyday products has become ubiquitous due to their durability, moldability, low weight, and affordability. Consequently, plastics have quickly become one of the largest components of solid waste pollution on the planet and can now be found in marine sediment, coastal waters, surface waters of oceanic gyres, and marine organisms. However, the extent of this problem has yet to be fully understood, in part due to the challenges associated with discrete water sampling in the vast global ocean. Optical detection of microplastics is one promising approach with the potential to circumnavigate the temporal and spatial limitations of discrete water sampling, though methodological techniques are still in their infancy and libraries of inherent optical properties (IOPs) of microplastics are sparse.