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Microplastic Spectral Classification Needs an Open Source Community: Open Specy to the Rescue!
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Researchers developed Open Specy, a free, open-source tool for spectral classification of microplastics using Raman and infrared spectroscopy. The platform addresses a critical gap in microplastic research by providing accurate, cost-free identification tools and a community-shared spectral library that better represents the diversity of environmental microplastic pollutants.
Microplastic pollution research has suffered from inadequate data and tools for spectral (Raman and infrared) classification. Spectral matching tools often are not accurate for microplastics identification and are cost-prohibitive. Lack of accuracy stems from the diversity of microplastic pollutants, which are not represented in spectral libraries. Here, we propose a viable software solution: Open Specy. Open Specy is on the web (www.openspecy.org) and in an R package. Open Specy is free and allows users to view, process, identify, and share their spectra to a community library. Users can upload and process their spectra using smoothing (Savitzky-Golay filter) and polynomial baseline correction techniques (IModPolyFit). The processed spectrum can be downloaded to be used in other applications or identified using an onboard reference library and correlation-based matching criteria. Open Specy's data sharing and session log features ensure reproducible results. Open Specy houses a growing library of reference spectra, which increasingly represents the diversity of microplastics as a contaminant suite. We compared the functionality and accuracy of Open Specy for microplastic identification to commonly used spectral analysis software. We found that Open Specy was the only open source software and the only software with a community library, and Open Specy had comparable accuracy to popular software (OMNIC Picta and KnowItAll). Future developments will enhance spectral identification accuracy as the reference library and functionality grows through community-contributed spectra and community-developed code. Open Specy can also be used for applications beyond microplastic analysis. Open Specy's source code is open source (CC-BY-4.0, attribution only) (https://github.com/wincowgerDEV/OpenSpecy).
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OpenSpecy: Analyze, Process, Identify, and Share Raman and (FT)IR Spectra
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OpenSpecy is a free, open-source software tool that helps researchers analyze Raman and FTIR spectra for identifying and characterizing microplastics and other environmental particles. The tool addresses a key bottleneck in microplastic research by making spectral analysis more accessible and standardized across laboratories.
Open Specy 1.0: Automated (Hyper)spectroscopy for Microplastics
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Researchers released Open Specy 1.0, an updated open-source software tool for automated spectroscopic analysis of microplastics, featuring new algorithms for batch processing and hyperspectral image analysis. The tool includes a library of over 40,000 Raman and FTIR reference spectra and two machine learning classifiers for polymer identification. The study demonstrates that this freely available tool can significantly reduce the time required for microplastic spectral analysis, which traditionally takes days per sample.
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Researchers created an open-access Raman spectral reference library covering major polymer types found in marine environments, providing a freely available tool to improve the accuracy and accessibility of microplastic identification in ocean research.
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A dual-modality classification system combining FTIR spectral data and microscope images achieved 99% accuracy in automatically identifying five common microplastic polymer types. The study deployed a web application (MPsSpecClassify) that enables researchers to efficiently classify microplastics, addressing the time-consuming and error-prone nature of manual spectral analysis.
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