School of Civil Engineering and Surveying, Faculty of Technology, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, PO1 3AH, UK.
School of the Environment Geography and Geosciences, Faculty of Science and Health, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, PO1 3QL, UK.
Anal Bioanal Chem. 2021 Jun;413(14):3789-3799. doi: 10.1007/s00216-021-03331-6. Epub 2021 Apr 23.
The lack of standardised methodologies in microplastic research has been addressed in recent years as it hampers the comparison of results across studies. The quantification of microplastics in the environment is key to the assessment of the potential eco-toxicological impacts that this new category of emerging pollutants could have on terrestrial and aquatic species. Therefore, the need for protocols that are robust, simple and reliable together with their standardisation are of crucial importance. This study has focused on removal of organic matter with Fenton reagent from wastewater and sludge samples. This step of analysis was optimised by implementing a multi-digestion treatment on these samples that have high concentration of complex mixtures of organic matter, which interfere with microplastic enumeration. Moreover, this study targeted the detection of microplastics in the sub-hundred-micron size range due to the potential higher risks associated with smaller-sized particles and the limited data available from previous wastewater research. To show the validity of the method, triplicate samples of raw sewage, final effluent and sludge were independently spiked with two different sizes and types of microplastic polymers. Due to the various analytical stages required for the isolation of microplastics, time is a limiting factor in sample processing. The sequential digestion with Fenton reagent represents an inexpensive and time-efficient procedure for wastewater research providing effective degradation of organic material. These advantages over other currently available methods mean the method is suitable for analysis of large numbers of samples allowing robust monitoring data sets to be generated.
近年来，由于缺乏标准化的方法学，微塑料研究受到了阻碍，这使得研究结果难以进行比较。量化环境中的微塑料是评估这种新型新兴污染物对陆地和水生物种可能产生的潜在生态毒理学影响的关键。因此，需要开发稳健、简单和可靠的方法，并对其进行标准化，这一点至关重要。本研究专注于使用芬顿试剂从废水和污泥样品中去除有机物。通过对这些高浓度复杂有机物混合物的样品进行多次消化处理，优化了分析步骤，这些有机物混合物会干扰微塑料的计数。此外，由于与较小尺寸颗粒相关的潜在更高风险以及以前废水研究中可用的数据有限，本研究针对亚百微米尺寸范围内的微塑料检测。为了证明该方法的有效性，对未经处理的污水、最终出水和污泥的三个重复样品分别用两种不同尺寸和类型的微塑料聚合物进行了人工添加。由于微塑料分离需要进行多个分析步骤，因此时间是样品处理的一个限制因素。芬顿试剂的顺序消化是一种用于废水研究的廉价且高效的方法，可有效降解有机物。与其他目前可用的方法相比，这些优势意味着该方法适用于大量样品的分析，可以生成稳健的监测数据集。
