Identification of microplastics in wastewater after cascade filtration using Pyrolysis-GC-MS

Matin Funck; Aylin Yildirim; Carmen Nickel; Jürgen Schram; Torsten C Schmidt; Jochen Tuerk

doi:10.1016/j.mex.2019.100778

Identification of microplastics in wastewater after cascade filtration using Pyrolysis-GC-MS

MethodsX. 2019 Dec 19:7:100778. doi: 10.1016/j.mex.2019.100778. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Matin Funck^{1

2}, Aylin Yildirim¹, Carmen Nickel¹, Jürgen Schram³, Torsten C Schmidt^{2

4

5}, Jochen Tuerk^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ Institut für Energie - und Umwelttechnik e.V. (IUTA, Institute of Energy and Environmental Technology), Bliersheimer Str. 58-60, 47229 Duisburg, Germany.
² Instrumental Analytical Chemistry (IAC), University of Duisburg-Essen, Universitätsstrasse 5, 45141 Essen, Germany.
³ Instrumental Analytical and Environmental Chemistry, Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences, Frankenring 20, Krefeld, Germany.
⁴ Centre for Water and Environmental Research (ZWU), University of Duisburg-Essen, Universitätsstrasse 2, 45141 Essen, Germany.
⁵ IWW Water Centre, Moritzstraße 26, 45476 Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany.

Abstract

The combination of a representative microplastic sampling method and a fast-quantitative analysis using Pyrolysis-GC-MS (Py-GC-MS) for investigation of the microplastic load and mass balances is presented in this work. A representative microplastic filtration requires a method allowing quick extraction of the sample. The developed steel based cascadic microplastic filtration uses steel basket filters with mesh sizes of 100 μm, 50 μm and 10 μm and a mean recovery of 86 % without cross contamination was achieved. Thermoanalytical methods have the advantage of minimal sample preparation with short analysis times. The presented platinum filament-based Py-GC-MS method requires little sample preparation and quantification limits for polystyrene (PS) and polyethylene (PE) were 0.03 μg and 1 μg absolute, respectively. The relative standard deviation of the analytical method is 11 %. The combined method allows representative sampling and analysis of MP from water bodies and waste water treatment plants within 48 h. •Presentation of a validated steel based cascadic microplastic filtration plant.•Fast and reproduceable Py-GC-MS analysis method for microplastic.•Py-GC-MS allows microplastic analysis with little sample preparation.

Keywords: Cascadic filtration; GC–MS; Microplastic; Microplastic filtration; Microplastic sampling; Pyrolysis.