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The effects of hydrogen peroxide on PTR-MS nanoplastic fingerprinting analysis and DOM degradation in seawater
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Researchers tested whether adding hydrogen peroxide to seawater samples could improve detection of tiny plastic particles (polyethylene and polystyrene) by breaking down natural organic matter that interferes with measurements. The peroxide did remove organic matter but did not improve plastic detection, and measured plastic levels and measurement reliability generally decreased. Heating samples to 50°C showed a different effect on measurement reliability.
PTR-MS is a useful method to quantify nanoplastics in seawater with recovery rates of up to 15%. Dissolved organic matter masks the plastic measurements, lowering the measured plastic content by up to 3 times. This paper is focused on increasing the rate of recovery by attempting to induce rapid digestion by addition of hydrogen peroxide. The effects of peroxide on DOM containing water, without addition of plastics, are reviewed as well as artificial sea water with plastics to determine how they are affected. DOM containing water is also combined with plastics to simulate real world samples. Two common types of plastics are used: polyethylene and polystyrene. To improve on this existing method would help gain insight in the magnitude of the global plastic problem and especially help in the research to define the scale of the effects of the nanoplastic fraction on the world’s oceans.\nThis research is based on the hypothesis that hydrogen peroxide would improve the recovery and reliability of plastic measurements in organic rich seawater by removing organic material and not affect plastics. Analysis of different types of seawater and plastics with and without hydrogen peroxide give evidence against this hypothesis. Removal of DOM can be seen but measured concentrations of either plastic species is lower after the addition of hydrogen peroxide and in all but one experiment the confidence of the measurements drops. Incubation of water samples at 50 °C does show a promising effect on the measured concentrations and the reliability of the measurements.
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