TY - CONF A1 - Vogler, M. A1 - Müller, Axel A1 - Braun, Ulrike A1 - Grathwohl, P. T1 - Sampling and Sample Preparation for Analysis of Microplastics in Soils N2 - Despite abundant evidence of the occurrence of microplastics (MP) – these are particles smaller 5 mm – in aquatic environments, little is known about the accumulation of plastic in terrestrial environments, especially in soils. Possible major input pathways could be the use of plastic mulching, the use of compost, sewage sludge or residues from biogas facilities as fertilizers, as well as littering in urban areas. To estimate the MP pollution, the development of reliable, fast methods for sampling, sample preparation, and detection is needed. The obtained data must be representative of the sampled environmental compartment and measurements from different environmental compartments must be comparable. A first breakthrough is an application of ThermoExtractionDesorption-Gas Chromatography-MassSpectrometry (TED-GC-MS) for the detection of MP, including tire abrasives. This method allows the determination of mass content within a few hours and only a minimum of sample preparation for samples from aquatic environments is needed. However, in contrast to filtrate samples from aquatic environments, sediment or soil samples need an enrichment of MP. Whereas MP concentration from marine sediments can be obtained by floatation and density Separation techniques using NaCl solutions, the extraction or separation from soils proves to be more difficult, as plastic particles are often part of organo-mineral aggregates within the soil matrix. The aim of this study is the development of a practicable processing guideline for representatively taken soil samples in order to concentrate microplastics, without complex and time-consuming treatment steps. Dispersants or detergents can be applied to decompose the soil matrix, but each preparation step carries the risk of crosscontamination of the sample and prolongs the preparation procedure. For this reason, we choose ZnCl2-solution with a density of 1.7 g/cm3, which include the densities of relevant MP types (0.9-1.7 g/cm3). It was tested to achieve both, disaggregation and separation as it decomposes organic material and dissolves carbonates. Also, ZnCl2 is inert to the precipitation of undesirable salts and Carbonates during the process of density separation, as polytungstate solution does. ZnCl2 can be reused after stepwise filtering (7 µm, 1.5 µm, 0.7 µm). Thus, disposal costs can be reduced. Efficiency and reproducibility of the sample preparation as well as the degradation behavior of MP under the present conditions were demonstrated with model samples. Real sampling campaigns were conducted at several agricultural sites and floodplains in south-west Germany. The sampling was performed according to practice for soil sampling, using adequate sampling strategies (pattern of sampling, number of field samples, homogenization, etc). The lab sample was fractioned into three size classes (5-100 µm, 100-1000 µm, and 1-5 mm). The identification and determination of mass fraction were done using TED-GC-MS. T2 - EGU 2019 - European Geoscience Union General Assembly 2019 CY - Wien, Austria DA - 07.04.2019 KW - Microplastics KW - Density separation KW - Sample preparation KW - Soil PY - 2019 AN - OPUS4-47824 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Meurer, Maren A1 - Wiesner, Yosri A1 - Geburtig, Anja A1 - Waniek, Tassilo A1 - Altmann, Korinna T1 - Is olypropylene relevant for microplastic analytics? N2 - Nowadays, in every terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem, even in the remotest areas, small residues of plastics, the so called microplastic (MP) can be found. MPs are particles with a size of 1-1000 µm (ISO/TR 21960:2020), mainly containing synthetic polymers like polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS) or polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Even styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) as an indication for tire wear is included due to similar particle formation. To understand the MPs consequences to the environment, it is of high priority to capture its extent of contamination. It is surprising that in the analysis of polymer masses in environmental samples, PE, PS and SBR are often detected, but only small amounts of PP, although this is the second most commonly produced standard plastic and many MP particles originate from carelessly disposed packaging materials. This presentation provides hypotheses about the reasons of rare PP identification and mass quantification in environmental samples. Different investigations of pristine PP and representative environmental samples, including the pre-treatment by Accelerated Solvent Extraction (ASE) or with density separation followed by the thermal extraction / desorption gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (TED-GC/MS) are presented. The results are discussed according to the material properties and a possible degradation mechanism under different weathering conditions which indicate less stability under relevant storage conditions. T2 - Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry CY - Dublin, Ireland DA - 30.04.2023 KW - Sample preparation KW - Polypropylene KW - Microplastic KW - Degradation PY - 2023 AN - OPUS4-57474 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -