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Improved methodology for microplastic extraction from gastrointestinal tracts of fat fish species
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Researchers improved microplastic extraction from fatty fish tissues by adding a small amount of the surfactant Tween-20 to potassium hydroxide digestion protocols, which disrupts the soap layer that forms during fat digestion and significantly increases microplastic recovery rates.
Potassium hydroxide (KOH) digestion protocols are currently applied to separate microplastics from biological samples, allowing efficient digestion with minor degradation of polymers in a time- and cost-effective way. For biota samples with high-fat content, KOH reacts with triglycerides generating an overlying soap layer, making difficult the digestion and solubilization and subsequent microplastics extraction. Here we studied the addition of Tween-20 in different concentrations to evaluate the effect on the soap layer of post-digested samples. Addition of 10 % of Tween-20 presented higher flow rate during filtration, being set as optimal value. Incorporation of Tween-20 in the extraction procedure increased recovery rates of LDPE, PC and PET and appears to have a protective effect on PC and PET degradation. Tween-20 did not interfere in FTIR spectrum of polymers available in the marine environment. Being low-toxic, makes addition of Tween-20 a simple and economical way to optimize KOH digestion protocols for microplastics extraction.
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When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.