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Deposition of nanoplastics in high-altitude Alpine snow
Summary
Researchers detected nanoplastics in Alpine snow samples at high altitude using a new chemical characterization method based on pyrolysis gas chromatography. Finding nanoplastics in remote mountain snow confirms that atmospheric transport can deliver plastic particles to even the most pristine environments on Earth. The study also demonstrates a methodological advance for detecting the extremely small particles that are hardest to analyze.
Recent research discovered that airborne microplastics pollution can reach very remote areas. However, analysis of nanoplastics in environmental samples remains challenging, mostly due to technical and methodological issues. A new method for chemical characterisation of nanoplastics based on TD-PTR-MS has been recently introduced. The detection limit of <1ng allowed for the first time the analysis of nanoplastics deposited on the snow in the pristine Alps. In this work, we analysed daily samples of surface snow close to the Sonnblick Observatory, Austria (3106 m altitude) in the period from 2017-02-07 to 2017-03-19, using our new method. The results showed a positive detection for various types of nanoplastics, and the most common type found was Polyethylene terephthalate (PET). We will present our results on the to-date longest daily record of nanoplastics deposition in high altitude regions and further discuss optimisations of TD-PTR-MS method for nanoplastics detection and quantification.