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Towards standardization of method for microplastics analysis using infrared microscopy
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This paper evaluated and compared different infrared microscopy protocols for identifying microplastics in environmental samples, working toward standardization of measurement methods across laboratories. Lack of standardized methods is a major obstacle to comparing microplastic data across studies and building a consistent picture of global contamination.
Microplastics’ occurrence is a major contributor to aquatic pollution and threat to marine ecosystems because these contaminants persist in the environment for hundreds of years. Although there have numerous workflows focusing on identification and characterization of microplastics, standardized methods are lacking. Infrared (IR) Microscopy has been widely used to identify and differentiate microplastics. It has proven to be an excellent technique for quick and accurate analysis; however, lack of standardization in methods and measurement parameters have made incredibly challenging to compare and replicate studies in a systematic manner. In this work, we have laid out systematic experimental methods and parameters for accurate and reproducible microplastics studies using IR Microscopy. We also investigated the lowest measurable size of microplastics using the technique with statistical analysis and multiple experimental approaches to support the findings.
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