Global Centre for Environmental Remediation (GCER), University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia; Cooperative Research Centre for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment (CRC CARE), University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia.
Flinders Institute for NanoScale Science and Technology, College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, South Australia 5042, Australia; Flinders Microscopy and Microanalysis, College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, Bedford Park 5042, Australia.
J Hazard Mater. 2022 Mar 15;426:127788. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.127788. Epub 2021 Nov 19.
The characterisation of microplastics is still a challenge, and the challenge is even greater for nanoplastics, of which we only have a limited knowledge so far. Herewith we employ Raman imaging to directly visualise microplastics and nanoplastics which are released from the trimmer lines during lawn mowing. The signal-noise ratio of Raman imaging is significantly increased by generating an image from hundreds or thousands of Raman spectra, rather than from a single spectrum, and is further increased by combining with the logic-based and PCA-based algorithms. The increased signal-noise ratio enables us to capture and identify microplastics and particularly nanoplastics, including plastic fragments or shreds (with diameters / widths of 80 nm - 3 µm) and nanoparticles (with diameters of < 1000 nm) that are released during the mimicked mowing process. Using Raman imaging, we estimate that thousands of microplastics (0.1-5 mm), and billions of nanoplastics (< 1000 nm), are released per minute when a line trimmer is used to mow lawn. Overall, Raman imaging provides effective characterisation of the microplastics and is particularly suitable for nanoplastics.
微塑料的特征描述仍然具有挑战性，而纳米塑料的挑战更大，目前我们对其只有有限的了解。在这里，我们采用 Raman 成像技术直接观察到在修剪草坪过程中从修剪线释放的微塑料和纳米塑料。通过从数百或数千个 Raman 光谱而不是单个光谱生成图像，Raman 成像的信噪比得到了显著提高，并且通过与基于逻辑和 PCA 的算法相结合，进一步提高了信噪比。增加的信噪比使我们能够捕捉和识别微塑料，特别是纳米塑料，包括在模拟修剪过程中释放的塑料碎片或碎片（直径/宽度为 80nm-3μm）和纳米颗粒（直径<1000nm）。使用 Raman 成像技术，我们估计当使用线式修剪器修剪草坪时，每分钟会释放数千个微塑料（0.1-5mm）和数十亿个纳米塑料（<1000nm）。总的来说，Raman 成像技术为微塑料的特征描述提供了有效的手段，特别适用于纳米塑料。
