TY - CONF A1 - Altmann, Korinna T1 - Seasonal microplastic concentrations along the rivers Rhine and Danube N2 - Over the last 20 years, many researchers, politicians and citizens have become increasingly aware of the growing plastic problem of our time. A lack of recycling concepts and plastic collection points as well as careless dumping lead to accumulation of plastic products in the environment. Natural weathering can cause these plastics to degrade and fractionate, meaning that microplastics (1 1,000 µm, ISO/TR 21960:2020) and nanoplastics (< 1 µm, ISO/TR 21960:2020) of various synthetic polymer materials can now be detected in all parts of the world. Whether microplastics or nanoplastics pose a toxicological hazard is being investigated in a variety of ways. Valid results are still pending. However, the EU precautionary principle applies to micro- and nanoplastics. Monitoring of microplastics is already required in the revision of the Drinking Water and Wastewater Framework Directive. Reliable monitoring of rivers can be carried out by sampling with sedimentation boxes and microplastic detection by using thermal extraction desorption gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (TED-GC/MS) in routine operation (Figure 1). The river Rhine was sampled for microplastic masses at three different sampling locations over a period of one year and in addition the Danube at randomized sampling locations The TED-GC/MS results showed that various synthetic polymers frequently produced in industry, such as polyethylene, polypropylene or polystyrene as well as the tire compound styrene-butadiene rubber were found. The work not only shows a possible workflow for monitoring concepts, but also provides information on environmentally relevant concentrations of microplastics and tire components in surface waters. This in turn is necessary for ecotoxicological studies. T2 - ESOPS CY - Berlin, Germany DA - 09.09.2024 KW - Microplastics KW - TED-GC/MS KW - Polymer 3R PY - 2024 AN - OPUS4-61016 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Altmann, Korinna T1 - Deliverable 2: Summary report on: The development of pristine SI traceable reference materials for SMPs (0.1 μm - 10 μm) and NPs (< 0.1 μm), representative of partially degraded/naturally aged samples in complex food and environmental matrices, and for realistic polydisperse size distributions and irregular shapes N2 - PlasticTrace aims to address the urgent need for development and harmonisation of methods for the chemical identification, physical characterisation and quantification of released small micro/nanoplastics (SMPs/NPs) in drinking water, food and environmental matrices, as required by the EU’s Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP). This report describs the characterisation of nanoPP analysed in the PlasticTrace project aiming to develop a reference material. The nanoPP was analysed mainly by light scattering methods. Homogeneity control was done by DLS. KW - Nanoplastics KW - Reference materials PY - 2024 N1 - Project Number 21GRD07: PlasticTrace (Tracing Micro and NanoPlastics in Food and Environment), funded by the European Union SP - 1 EP - 29 PB - European Association of National Metrology Institutes (EURAMET) CY - Braunschweig AN - OPUS4-62299 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Altmann, Korinna T1 - Production of small micro- and nanoplastic reference materials supporting harmonization and standardization N2 - The MICROPLASTICdays at Ljubliana, Slowenia, were organized in cooperation with the PRIORITY cost action. The topic has been reference materials this time. The talk gives an idea of the preparation of reference materials in micro- and nanoplastic topic to support standardisation and regulation. It defines the term of micro-and nanoplastics and presents different case studies and critical attributes to the production depending on the enduser needs. T2 - MICROPLASTICdays CY - Ljubljana, Slovenia DA - 25.03.2025 KW - Microplastics KW - Nanoplastics KW - Reference materials PY - 2025 AN - OPUS4-62801 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Altmann, Korinna T1 - Repräsentative Untersuchungsstrategien für ein integratives Systemverständnis von spezifischen Einträgen von Kunststoffen in die Umwelt (RUSEKU) N2 - Der Vortrag wurde im Rahmen der Abschlusskonferenz des Forschungsschwerpunktes "Plastik in der Umwelt" des BMBF gehalten. Er fasst die Ergebnisse des Verbundprojektes RUSEKU zusammen. Es wurde die Herstellung verschiedener Testmaterialien für die Mikroplastik (MP) Analytik beschrieben. Im weiteren geht es um verschiedene Ansätze MP kostengünstig und schnell zu detektieren, z.B. mit Nahinfrarotspektroskopie. Nanoplastik konnte mit der Transmissionselektronenmikroskopie sichtbar gemacht werden. Für die praxisnahe Beprobung von Gewässern wurde die Fraktionierte Filtration entwickelt. Integrale Beprobungen können mit dem Sedimentationskasten erfolgen. Als Beispiele für die Beprobung realer Gewässer wurde das urbane Abwassersystem Kaiserslautern, Getränkewasser und Waschmaschinenwasser gezeigt. T2 - Abschlusskonferenz des Forschungsschwerpunktes "Plastik in der Umwelt" des BMBF CY - Online meeting DA - 20.04.2021 KW - Mikroplastik KW - TED-GC/MS KW - Probennahme KW - RUSEKU PY - 2021 AN - OPUS4-52546 LA - deu AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Altmann, Korinna T1 - BAM activities on microplastics N2 - The presentation is about BAM's activities on the topic of microplastics. It describes what BAM has done in this field in recent years. On the one hand, TED-GC/MS is presented as an analytical method, on the other hand, currently available microplastic reference materials are presented. T2 - JRC/BAM Workshop on ILC CY - Online meeting DA - 11.02.2021 KW - Microplastic KW - TED-GC/MS KW - Microplastic particles KW - Reference materials PY - 2021 AN - OPUS4-52120 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Altmann, Korinna T1 - Microplastics at BAM: TED-GC/MS and reference materials N2 - Thsi talk aims to present the activities of microplastic analysis at BAM according to TED-GC/MS and reference materials developement. T2 - Webinar BAM / University of Birmingham CY - Online meeting DA - 15.06.2021 KW - Microplastic KW - TED-GC/MS KW - Reference materials PY - 2021 AN - OPUS4-53738 LA - deu AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Altmann, Korinna T1 - Mikroplastik – Ein Problem für die Menschheit? N2 - Mikroplastik findet sich in Ozeanen, Seen, Flüssen und Bächen. Es kann in unserem Boden, in der Luft und sogar in Organismen nachgewiesen werden. Jedes Jahr werden weltweit Millionen Tonnen freigesetzt. Doch wo und wie landet Mikroplastik in der Umwelt? Und wie können wir diese winzigen Partikel nachweisen? T2 - Berlin Science Week CY - Berlin, Germany DA - 01.11.2021 KW - Mikroplastik KW - TED-GC/MS PY - 2021 AN - OPUS4-53734 LA - deu AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Altmann, Korinna T1 - PE-Rezyklat Einsatz in Gefahrgutbehältern? N2 - In diesem Vortrag geht es darum zu beschreiben, ob Rezyklat für PE Behälter gefüllt mit Gefahrgut Anwendung finden darf. Kanister aus Neuware und Rezyklat wurden verschiedenen Untersuchungen unterzogen. Es wurde der Feststoff und Leachable getestet. Methoden sind TED-GC/MS und GC-HRMS. Proben der Leachable wurden nach 1 und 4 Wochen genommen und die Peakanzahl vergleichen dargestellt. Als Lösemittel wurden Wasser, Ethanol, EtOAc, Ammoniak und HNO3 verwendet. T2 - Fachaustausch Projekt GeSKAR CY - Dessau, Germany DA - 10.01.2025 KW - Gefahrgutbehälter KW - Rezyklat PY - 2025 AN - OPUS4-62396 LA - deu AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Altmann, Korinna T1 - Textile Fibers as Reference Materials for Microplastic Release N2 - Fibers of textile origin are named as high contributor for microplastic pollution in the environment next to e.g. plastics from packaging, tire wear and paints. Small fibers and fragments (microplastics: 1-1000 µm) can be released from textiles by mechanical abrasion during application (e.g. wearing) or washing. To date, the occurrence, transport pathways, and impacts of such small fibers on the environment and human health remain unclear. The European Commission revised the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive (Directive (EU) 2024/3019) and made monitoring of microplastics mandatory in the next years. Additionally, standards for microplastic detection are developed in the ISO standardization body ISO/TC 147/SC 2 with the documents ISO/DIS 16094-2 and ISO/DIS 16094-3. Detection mainly occurs by thermoanalytical methods for mass or vibrational methods with microscopes for numbers. Such standards and regulatory efforts need validated methods, which themselves need reference materials for validation. Reference materials are well characterized materials that are produced for a specific purpose and are homogeneous and stable within one property of interest. The shape and the composition of the reference particles/fibers will affect the detection, hence it is important to validate the instruments with fibers, if this is the task for monitoring campaigns. This work describes the production of realistic fibers as reference material for microplastic analysis. The individual samples contain of a small number (< 1000) and mass (< 20 µm) of fibres. Homogeneity and stability control occurred by thermogravimetric analysis and µ-Raman. Further characteristics were determined for type, shape and size distribution. T2 - TEXTEH CY - Bucharest, Romania DA - 23.10.2025 KW - Microplastics KW - Reference materials KW - Microfibers KW - Microfiber release PY - 2025 AN - OPUS4-64620 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Altmann, Korinna T1 - PlasticTrace WP1 – Stakeholder Workshop N2 - The talk summarizes the achievments of WP1 of the PlasticTrace project. Microplastic reference materials were developed by producing tablets. Different preparation methods were compared. Characterisation of the tablets was done after filtration with µFTIR, QCL, µRaman, Py-GC/MS and TED-GC/MS after ISO standards ISO 16094-2 and ISO/FDIS 16094-3. Polymer types are polypropylene and polyethylene terephthalate. T2 - Stakeholder Workshop PlasticsTrace CY - Online meeting DA - 09.09.2025 KW - Microplastics KW - Reference materials KW - TED-GC/MS KW - PET PY - 2025 AN - OPUS4-64258 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -