Shalumon C S, Ratanatamskul Chavalit
Department of Environmental Engineering, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand.
Center of Excellence in Innovative Waste Treatment and Water Reuse, Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand.
Sci Rep. 2023 Aug 29;13(1):14168. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-41457-y.
Microplastic pollution in different environmental matrices is a serious concern in the recent times. Personal care products and washing of synthetic fabrics are some of the main sources of microplastic pollution. In this work, a novel simplified, effective and sustainable method for extraction of microplastic particles from face scrub and laundry wastewater was developed. Different parameters affecting the extraction were analysed and the extraction process was optimised. The extraction efficiency of the proposed method was found to be ~ 94.1 ± 1.65%, which was slightly better than the previously available method with an advantage of ease in extraction and lesser time and resource consuming. The developed method was used to demonstrate the extraction of microplastic particles from 12 face scrub samples with different brands. It was found that the samples contained microplastic particles of varying size. The physical and chemical structure intactness of microplastic particles during the extraction was also analysed and found to be acceptable. The developed extraction method was also applied for the extraction of microfibers from the laundry wastewater. It was found that this proposed method is suitable to make the cleaner extracted samples for an easy and more effective qualitative and quantitative analysis of MPs.
近年来，不同环境基质中的微塑料污染成为一个严重问题。个人护理产品和合成织物洗涤是微塑料污染的一些主要来源。在这项工作中，开发了一种新颖、简化、有效且可持续的从面部磨砂膏和洗衣废水中提取微塑料颗粒的方法。分析了影响提取的不同参数，并对提取过程进行了优化。所提出方法的提取效率约为94.1±1.65%，略优于先前可用的方法，具有提取简便、耗时少和资源消耗少的优点。所开发的方法用于从12个不同品牌的面部磨砂膏样品中提取微塑料颗粒。发现这些样品含有不同尺寸的微塑料颗粒。还分析了提取过程中微塑料颗粒的物理和化学结构完整性，发现其可以接受。所开发的提取方法也用于从洗衣废水中提取微纤维。发现该方法适合制备更清洁的提取样品，以便对微塑料进行简便且更有效的定性和定量分析。
