Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, School of Urban Environmental Sciences, Tokyo Metropolitan University, 1-1, Minami-osawa, Hachioji-city, Tokyo 192-0397, Japan E-mail:
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, School of Urban Environmental Sciences, Tokyo Metropolitan University, 1-1, Minami-osawa, Hachioji-city, Tokyo 192-0397, Japan.
Water Sci Technol. 2024 Nov;90(10):2784-2795. doi: 10.2166/wst.2024.378. Epub 2024 Nov 13.
Introducing microplastics (MPs) into the marine environment is a global problem. Tire-derived microplastics (TMPs) are estimated to account for 60% of all secondary MPs dispersed in aquatic environments. To effectively detect TMPs in environmental samples using micro-Fourier transform infrared (μFTIR) spectroscopy, a high-quality reference library is essential. However, the use of conventional diamond crystals in FTIR presents challenges for the detection of materials containing carbon black, such as rubber and tires. In addition, there is a discrepancy between spectra from standard libraries and spectra from environmental samples, which makes detection difficult. In order to overcome these problems in the detection of TMPs by μFTIR, we developed four reference libraries to improve the detection, and 'The 26 tire wear library' was found to be the best among these four. Furthermore, a comparison of these new libraries revealed the following requirements to improve TMP detection: (i) the reference spectra must be acquired under the same setup used for material observation including prism material, (ii) tires, not rubber, must be used as reference materials, and (iii) tire wear samples must be prepared to replicate the actual generation conditions on roads.
将微塑料（MPs）引入海洋环境是一个全球性的问题。据估计，轮胎衍生的微塑料（TMPs）占分散在水生环境中的所有二次 MPs 的 60%。为了使用微傅里叶变换红外（μFTIR）光谱术有效地检测环境样品中的 TMPs，高质量的参考库是必不可少的。然而，在 FTIR 中使用常规金刚石晶体对于检测含有炭黑的材料（如橡胶和轮胎）存在挑战。此外，标准库中的光谱与环境样品中的光谱之间存在差异，这使得检测变得困难。为了克服 μFTIR 检测 TMPs 时的这些问题，我们开发了四个参考库来提高检测效果，其中“26 个轮胎磨损库”是这四个库中最好的。此外，对这些新库的比较揭示了提高 TMP 检测的以下要求：（i）参考光谱必须在与材料观察相同的设置下获取，包括棱镜材料，（ii）必须使用轮胎而不是橡胶作为参考材料，以及（iii）必须制备轮胎磨损样品以复制道路上的实际生成条件。
