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A comparison of microscopic and spectroscopic identification methods for analysis of microplastics in environmental samples

Marine Pollution Bulletin 2015 820 citations ? Citation count from OpenAlex, updated daily. May differ slightly from the publisher's own count.
Young Kyoung Song, Sang Hee Hong, Mi Jang, Gi Myung Han, Manviri Rani, Jong-Myoung Lee, Won Joon Shim

Summary

Researchers compared microscopic and spectroscopic methods for analyzing microplastics in environmental samples, evaluating accuracy and efficiency and finding that spectroscopic confirmation substantially reduces misidentification errors.

Study Type Environmental

The analysis of microplastics in various environmental samples requires the identification of microplastics from natural materials. The identification technique lacks a standardized protocol. Herein, stereomicroscope and Fourier transform infrared spectroscope (FT-IR) identification methods for microplastics (<1mm) were compared using the same samples from the sea surface microlayer (SML) and beach sand. Fragmented microplastics were significantly (p<0.05) underestimated and fiber was significantly overestimated using the stereomicroscope both in the SML and beach samples. The total abundance by FT-IR was higher than by microscope both in the SML and beach samples, but they were not significantly (p>0.05) different. Depending on the number of samples and the microplastic size range of interest, the appropriate identification method should be determined; selecting a suitable identification method for microplastics is crucial for evaluating microplastic pollution.

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