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Considerations on salts used for density separation in the extraction of microplastics from sediments
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A review of 50 studies on microplastic extraction from marine sediments found that NaCl (45.6%), ZnCl (19.3%), and NaI (17.5%) are the most used density-separation salts, with significant tradeoffs in cost, hazard, and extraction efficiency that complicate cross-study comparisons.
Environmental contamination by plastics and microplastics is a recognised problem worldwide, and it is the focus of many research teams. In the quantification of microplastics in the environment (plastic items with dimensions between 1 μm and 5 mm), the search for shared and universally recognised protocols and methodologies is still ongoing. In this study, the use of a method for extracting microplastics from marine sediments based on density separation has been considered. Fifty studies were analysed to investigate the scenario of salts exploited during microplastic extraction. The most commonly used salts are NaCl (45.6%), ZnCl (19.3%) and NaI (17.5%). Considerations related to cost, availability, hazards of the salts and thus the repeatability of the related extraction method are reported. In light of the findings, NaCl remains the most readily usable, economical and effective salt for the extraction of microplastics from marine sediments.
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Extraction of microplastics from sediment matrices: Experimental comparative analysis
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Extraction efficiencies of four methods for separating microplastics from sediment matrices were experimentally compared using spiked samples, finding that density separation with saturated NaCl was adequate for most polymer types but underperformed for high-density polymers, and that no single method achieved complete recovery across all particle sizes and shapes.
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Researchers developed a cost-efficient protocol for reusing zinc chloride (ZnCl2) solution in density-based microplastic separation from aquatic samples, demonstrating that the reagent can be recovered and reused multiple times without significant loss of separation effectiveness. The approach reduces the financial and environmental costs associated with using high-density salt solutions in microplastic extraction workflows.
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