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An assessment workflow to recover microplastics from complex biological matrices

Marine Pollution Bulletin 2022 29 citations ? Citation count from OpenAlex, updated daily. May differ slightly from the publisher's own count. Score: 50 ? 0–100 AI score estimating relevance to the microplastics field. Papers below 30 are filtered from public browse.
Marina Santana Marina Santana Marina Santana Marina Santana Frederieke J. Kroon, Frederieke J. Kroon, George Vamvounis, Cherie A. Motti, Marina Santana Marina Santana Marina Santana Frederieke J. Kroon, Marina Santana Marina Santana Marina Santana Marina Santana Cherie A. Motti, Marina Santana Frederieke J. Kroon, Cherie A. Motti, Cherie A. Motti, Marina Santana Cherie A. Motti, Cherie A. Motti, Cherie A. Motti, Marina Santana Cherie A. Motti, Marina Santana Cherie A. Motti, Frederieke J. Kroon, Marina Santana Marina Santana Marina Santana Marina Santana Marina Santana Marina Santana Frederieke J. Kroon, Frederieke J. Kroon, George Vamvounis, George Vamvounis, Frederieke J. Kroon, George Vamvounis, Marina Santana Lynne van Herwerden, Cherie A. Motti, Marina Santana Cherie A. Motti, George Vamvounis, Frederieke J. Kroon, Marina Santana Cherie A. Motti, Frederieke J. Kroon, George Vamvounis, Cherie A. Motti, Frederieke J. Kroon, George Vamvounis, George Vamvounis, Cherie A. Motti, Cherie A. Motti, Cherie A. Motti, Cherie A. Motti, Cherie A. Motti, Cherie A. Motti, Cherie A. Motti, Cherie A. Motti, Cherie A. Motti, Cherie A. Motti, Cherie A. Motti, Cherie A. Motti, Cherie A. Motti, Cherie A. Motti, Cherie A. Motti, Frederieke J. Kroon, Lynne van Herwerden, Lynne van Herwerden, Frederieke J. Kroon, Frederieke J. Kroon, Frederieke J. Kroon, Marina Santana Marina Santana George Vamvounis, George Vamvounis, Cherie A. Motti, George Vamvounis, George Vamvounis, George Vamvounis, George Vamvounis, Cherie A. Motti, Cherie A. Motti, Frederieke J. Kroon, Lynne van Herwerden, Lynne van Herwerden, George Vamvounis, Marina Santana Frederieke J. Kroon, Frederieke J. Kroon, Frederieke J. Kroon, Frederieke J. Kroon, Marina Santana Frederieke J. Kroon, Frederieke J. Kroon, George Vamvounis, Lynne van Herwerden, Cherie A. Motti, Cherie A. Motti, Cherie A. Motti, George Vamvounis, George Vamvounis, Frederieke J. Kroon, Frederieke J. Kroon, Lynne van Herwerden, Frederieke J. Kroon, Lynne van Herwerden, Cherie A. Motti, Cherie A. Motti, Frederieke J. Kroon, George Vamvounis, George Vamvounis, Marina Santana Marina Santana Cherie A. Motti, Marina Santana

Summary

Researchers developed an assessment workflow for recovering microplastics from complex marine biological matrices, finding that potassium hydroxide digestion was most effective across coral, sponge, sea squirt, and sea cucumber tissues while minimizing damage to plastic particles.

A criteria-guided workflow was applied to assess the effectiveness of microplastic separation methods on complex marine biological matrices. Efficacy of four methods (nitric acid, HNO, and potassium hydroxide, KOH, digestions, and sodium chloride, NaCl, and potassium iodide, KI, density flotations) was evaluated on four taxa (hard coral, sponge, sea squirt, sea cucumber) using five microplastics (polyethylene, polystyrene, polyethylene terephthalate, PET, polyvinylchloride, rayon). Matrix clarification was only unacceptably low for KOH. PET discoloured regardless of reagent. Rayon threads unravelled into monofilaments after exposure to all reagents, with discolouration also occurring with HNO. Recovery rates were overall high, except for dense microplastics treated with NaCl and only KI yielded high rayon recovery efficiency. All polymers were accurately assigned, with subtle spectral changes observed. These results demonstrate specific limitations to separation methods applied to different biological matrices and microplastics and highlight the need to assess their suitability to provide estimates of microplastic contamination.

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