The influence of complex matrices on method performance in extracting and monitoring for microplastics

Leah M Thornton Hampton; Hannah De Frond; Kristine Gesulga; Syd Kotar; Wenjian Lao; Cindy Matuch; Stephen B Weisberg; Charles S Wong; Susanne Brander; Silke Christansen; Cayla R Cook; Fangni Du; Sutapa Ghosal; Andrew B Gray; Jeanne Hankett; Paul A Helm; Kay T Ho; Timnit Kefela; Gwendolyn Lattin; Amy Lusher; Lei Mai; Rachel E McNeish; Odette Mina; Elizabeth C Minor; Sebastian Primpke; Keith Rickabaugh; Violet C Renick; Samiksha Singh; Bert van Bavel; Florian Vollnhals; Chelsea M Rochman

doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2023.138875

The influence of complex matrices on method performance in extracting and monitoring for microplastics

Chemosphere. 2023 Sep:334:138875. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2023.138875. Epub 2023 May 13.

Authors

Leah M Thornton Hampton¹, Hannah De Frond², Kristine Gesulga³, Syd Kotar³, Wenjian Lao³, Cindy Matuch³, Stephen B Weisberg³, Charles S Wong³, Susanne Brander⁴, Silke Christansen⁵, Cayla R Cook⁶, Fangni Du⁷, Sutapa Ghosal⁸, Andrew B Gray⁹, Jeanne Hankett¹⁰, Paul A Helm¹¹, Kay T Ho¹², Timnit Kefela¹³, Gwendolyn Lattin¹⁴, Amy Lusher¹⁵, Lei Mai¹⁶, Rachel E McNeish¹⁷, Odette Mina¹⁸, Elizabeth C Minor¹⁹, Sebastian Primpke²⁰, Keith Rickabaugh²¹, Violet C Renick²², Samiksha Singh⁹, Bert van Bavel²³, Florian Vollnhals²⁴, Chelsea M Rochman²

Affiliations

¹ Southern California Coastal Water Research Project Authority, Costa Mesa, CA, 92626, USA. Electronic address: leahth@sccwrp.org.
² Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, 25 Willcocks Street, Room 3055, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 3B2, Canada.
³ Southern California Coastal Water Research Project Authority, Costa Mesa, CA, 92626, USA.
⁴ Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, And Conservation Sciences, Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station, Oregon State University, Newport, OR, 97365, USA.
⁵ Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramics Technology and Systems (IKTS), Äußere Nürnberger Str. 62, 91301, Forchheim, Germany; Institute for Nanotechnology and Correlative Microscopy (INAM), Äußere Nürnberger Str. 62, 91301, Forchheim, Germany.
⁶ Hazen and Sawyer, 1400 East Southern Ave., Tempe, AZ, 85282, USA; Carollo Engineers, 4600 E Washington St Ste 500, Phoenix, AZ, 85034, USA.
⁷ State Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Research, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200062, China.
⁸ Environmental Health Laboratory, California Department of Public Health, Richmond, CA, 94804, USA.
⁹ Department of Environmental Sciences, University of California Riverside, 900 University Ave, Riverside, CA, 92521, USA.
¹⁰ BASF Corporation, 1609 Biddle Ave., Wyandotte, MI, 48192, USA.
¹¹ Environmental Monitoring & Reporting Branch, Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, 125 Resources Road, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M9P 3V6.
¹² US Environmental Protection Agency, Atlantic Coastal Environmental Sciences Division, Narragansett, RI, 02882, USA.
¹³ Bren School of Environmental Science & Management, University of California Santa Barbara, 2400 Bren Hall, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, USA.
¹⁴ The Moore Institute for Plastic Pollution Research, Long Beach, CA, 90803, USA.
¹⁵ Norwegian Institute for Water Research, Oslo, Norway; Department of Biological Sciences, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.
¹⁶ Center for Environmental Microplastics Studies, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution and Health, School of Environment, Jinan University, Guangzhou, 511443, China.
¹⁷ Department of Biology, California State University Bakersfield, 9001 Stockdale Hwy, Bakersfield, CA, 93311, USA.
¹⁸ The Energy and Environmental Sustainability Laboratories, The Pennsylvania State University, 123 Land and Water Research Building, University Park, PA, 16802, USA.
¹⁹ Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Large Lakes Observatory, University of Minnesota Duluth, 2205 East 5th St, Duluth, MN, 55812, USA.
²⁰ Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Biologische Anstalt Helgoland, Kurpromenade 201, D-27498, Helgoland, Germany.
²¹ RJ Lee Group, 350 Hochberg Road, Monroeville, PA, 15146, USA.
²² Orange County Sanitation District, 10844 Ellis Ave, Fountain Valley, CA, 92708, USA.
²³ Norwegian Institute for Water Research, Oslo, Norway.
²⁴ Institute for Nanotechnology and Correlative Microscopy (INAM), Äußere Nürnberger Str. 62, 91301, Forchheim, Germany.

PMID: 37187379
PMCID: PMC10441247 (available on 2024-09-01)
DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2023.138875

Abstract

Previous studies have evaluated method performance for quantifying and characterizing microplastics in clean water, but little is known about the efficacy of procedures used to extract microplastics from complex matrices. Here we provided 15 laboratories with samples representing four matrices (i.e., drinking water, fish tissue, sediment, and surface water) each spiked with a known number of microplastic particles spanning a variety of polymers, morphologies, colors, and sizes. Percent recovery (i.e., accuracy) in complex matrices was particle size dependent, with ∼60-70% recovery for particles >212 μm, but as little as 2% recovery for particles <20 μm. Extraction from sediment was most problematic, with recoveries reduced by at least one-third relative to drinking water. Though accuracy was low, the extraction procedures had no observed effect on precision or chemical identification using spectroscopy. Extraction procedures greatly increased sample processing times for all matrices with the extraction of sediment, tissue, and surface water taking approximately 16, 9, and 4 times longer than drinking water, respectively. Overall, our findings indicate that increasing accuracy and reducing sample processing times present the greatest opportunities for method improvement rather than particle identification and characterization.

Keywords: Method; Microplastic; Microscopy; Monitoring; Spectroscopy.

MeSH terms

Animals
Drinking Water*
Environmental Monitoring
Microplastics
Plastics
Water Pollutants, Chemical* / analysis

Substances

Microplastics
Plastics
Drinking Water
Water Pollutants, Chemical

Grants and funding

EPA999999/ImEPA/Intramural EPA/United States