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Extraction and Identification of a Wide Range of Microplastic Polymers in Soil and Compost
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Researchers compared and optimized two microplastic extraction methods for soil and compost, finding that density separation combined with chemical digestion was effective across a wide range of polymer types, providing a more reliable protocol for terrestrial microplastic analysis.
Microplastic pollution is globally widespread; however, the presence of microplastics in soil systems is poorly understood, due to the complexity of soils and a lack of standardised extraction methods. Two commonly used extraction methods were optimised and compared for the extraction of low-density (polyethylene (PE)) and high-density microplastics (polyethylene (PET)), olive-oil-based extraction, and density separation with zinc chloride (ZnCl2). Comparable recoveries in a low-organic-matter matrix (soil; most >98%) were observed, but in a high-organic-matter matrix (compost), density separation yielded higher recoveries (98 ± 4% vs. 80 ± 11%). Density separation was further tested for the extraction of five microplastic polymers spiked at different concentrations. Recoveries were >93% for both soil and compost, with no differences between matrices and individual polymers. Reduction in levels of organic matter in compost was tested before and after extraction, as well as combined. Double oxidation (Fenton's reagent and 1 M NaOH) exhibited the highest reduction in organic matter. Extracted microplastic polymers were further identified via headspace solid-phase microextraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS). This method has shown the potential for descriptive quantification of microplastic polymers. A linear relationship between the number of particles and the signal response was demonstrated for PET, polystyrene (PS), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and PE (R2 > 0.98 in alluvial soil, and R2 > 0.80 in compost). The extraction and identification methods were demonstrated on an environmental sample of municipal biowaste compost, with the recovery of 36 ± 9 microplastic particles per 10 g of compost, and the detection of PS and PP.
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An olive oil-based extraction method was developed for recovering microplastics from soil and compost samples, exploiting the oleophilic properties of plastics to separate them regardless of their density. Recovery rates were consistently above 90% for six different polymer types, including high-density polymers that conventional density separation methods often miss.
Data from: Extraction and identification of a wide range of microplastic polymers in soil and compost
AI summary Read the abstract
This is a dataset supporting a study on extraction and identification methods for a wide range of microplastic polymers from soil and compost. It contains recovery data from optimized extraction protocols, addressing the challenge of standardizing microplastic analysis in complex soil matrices.
Data from: Extraction and identification of a wide range of microplastic polymers in soil and compost
AI summary Read the abstract
This is a dataset supporting a study on extraction and identification methods for a wide range of microplastic polymers from soil and compost. It contains recovery data from optimized extraction protocols, addressing the challenge of standardizing microplastic analysis in complex soil matrices.
Density separation of soils as sample preparation for the determination of plastics
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This study developed and evaluated a density separation technique for extracting plastic particles from soil samples, enabling more reliable quantification of microplastics in terrestrial environments. Researchers found that optimizing the separation solution density improved recovery rates for a range of common polymer types.
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