Determination of Microplastics in Water and Wastewater Using IR Spectroscopy

Analyzing Microplastics in the Environment
Oral Presentation

Prepared by W. Lipps
Shimadzu, 7102 Riverwood Drive, Columbia, Maryland, 21046, United States


Contact Information: [email protected]; 443-539-6216

ABSTRACT

ASTM D19 is developing new methods for the determination of microplastics in water samples. One of these methods uses IR spectroscopy to qualitatively identify plastic particles. Samples are first collected using ASTM D8332 Standard Practice for Collection of Water Samples with High, Medium, or Low Suspended Solids for Identification and Quantification of Microplastic Particles and Fibers which collects particles from a large volume of water using a sieve stack. Then, the particles retained on the individual sieves are processed using ASTM D8333 Standard Practice for Preparation of Water Samples with High, Medium, or Low Suspended Solids for Identification and Quantification of Microplastic Particles and Fibers Using Raman Spectroscopy, IR Spectroscopy, or Pyrolysis-GC/MS and any modifications necessary to obtain a clean sample. Once samples are purified, they are classified according to size and shape, counted, and identified using IR spectroscopy. This presentation will cover the various steps of the sampling, sample preparation and then focus on the IR aspects that differ based on sieve size of the particles.