Filtern
Dokumenttyp
Sprache
- Englisch (4)
Referierte Publikation
- ja (4) (entfernen)
Schlagworte
- Microplastics (2)
- Pyrolysis (2)
- BTEX (1)
- Chemometrics (1)
- Degradation (1)
- Interlaboratory comparison (1)
- Mass spectrometry (1)
- Near Infrared Spectroscopy (1)
- PLS-DA (1)
- Polypropylene (1)
Organisationseinheit der BAM
- 1.7 Organische Spuren- und Lebensmittelanalytik (4) (entfernen)
Paper des Monats
- ja (1)
The increasing pollution of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems with plastic debris leads to the accumulation of microscopic plastic particles of still unknown amount. To monitor the degree of contamination analytical methods are urgently needed, which help to quantify microplastics (MP). Currently, time-costly purified materials enriched on filters are investigated both by micro-infrared spectroscopy and/or micro-Raman. Although yielding precise results, these techniques are time consuming, and are restricted to the analysis of a small part of the sample in the order of few micrograms. To overcome these problems, here we tested a macroscopic dimensioned NIR process-spectroscopic method in combination with chemometrics. For calibration, artificial MP/soil mixtures containing defined ratios of polyethylene, polyethylene terephthalate, polypropylene, and polystyrene with diameters < 125 µm were prepared and measured by a process FT-NIR spectrometer equipped with a fiber optic reflection probe. The resulting spectra were processed by chemometric models including support vector machine regression (SVR), and partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA). Validation of models by MP mixtures, MP-free soils and real-world samples, e.g. and fermenter residue, suggest a reliable detection and a possible classification of MP at levels above 0.5 to 1.0 mass% depending on the polymer. The benefit of the combined NIRS chemometric approach lies in the rapid assessment whether soil contains MP, without any chemical pre-treatment. The method can be used with larger sample volumes and even allows for an online prediction and thus meets the demand of a high-throughput method.
Microplastics are increasingly entering marine, limnic and terrestrial ecosystems worldwide, where they sorb hydrophobic organic contaminants. Here, the sorption behavior of the fuel-related water contaminants benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene and xylene (BTEX) and four tertiary butyl ethers to virgin and via UV radiation aged polypropylene (PP) and polystyrene (PS) pellets was investigated. Changes in material properties due to aging were recorded using appropriate polymer characterization methods, such as differential scanning calorimetry, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, gel permeation chromatography, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and microscopy.
Pellets were exposed to water containing BTEX and the ethers at 130-190 mg/L for up to two weeks.
Aqueous sorbate concentrations were determined by headspace gas chromatography. Sorption to the polymers was correlated with the sorbate's Kow and was significant for BTEX and marginal for the ethers.
Due to substantially lower glass transition temperatures, PP showed higher sorption than PS. Aging had no effect on the sorption behavior of PP. PS sorbed less BTEX after aging due to an oxidized surface layer.
In this study, the thermal decomposition of 1,3,5-tris-(2,3-dibromopropyl)-1,3,5-triazine-2,4,6-trione (TDBPTAZTO) and 2,4,6-tris-(2,4,6-tribromo-phenoxy)-1,3,5-triazine (TTBP-TAZ) were investigated for the first time by thermogravimetric analysis. Both compounds were thermal degraded between 225 and 350 °C (TDBP-TAZTO) as well as 300 and 400 °C (TTBP-TAZ).
As a result, mass loss (%) of 98.5% for TTBP-TAZ and 95.4% for TDBP-TAZTO at 600 °C under N2 were observed. The major pyrolytic degradation products of TTBP-TAZ were formed in a single step and identified by FTIR analysis as 2,4,6-tribromophenol and further bromine-substituted aromatic compounds. In comparison, TDBP-TAZTO was pyrolytic degraded in two steps, whereby on the first step the release of hydrogen Bromide and 1,3,5-triallyl-1,3,5-triazine-2,4,6-trione could be detected. In the second minor step, isocyanic acid could be additionally identified.
Subsequently, the obtained products of the TGA-FTIR measurements were used for a targeted search for mass fragments in mass spectrometry measurements. For TTBP-TAZ, only the degradation product 1,3,5-tribromobenzene could be detected by MS/MS analyzes. No comparable thermal degradation products, except hydrogen bromide, were observed in the MS/MS spectra of TDBP-TAZTO. Therefore, the search of further mass fragments was not possible compared to the findings of the TGA-FTIR measurements.
A sedimented freshwater suspended organic matter fortified with particles of polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS), and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) was employed in an interlaboratory comparison of thermoanalytical methods for microplastics identification and quantification. Three laboratories performed pyrolysis gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (Py-GC-MS), three others provided results using thermal extraction desorption followed by gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (TED-GC-MS). One participant performed thermogravimetry-infrared spectroscopy (TGA-FTIR) and two participants used thermogravimetry coupled to mass spectrometry (TGA-MS). Further participants used differential scanning microscopy (DSC), a procedure based on micro combustion calorimetry (MCC) and a procedure based on elemental analysis.
Each participant employed a different combination of sample treatment, calibration and instrumental Settings for polymer identification and quantification. Though there is obviously room for improvements regarding the between-laboratory reproducibility and the harmonization of procedures it was seen that the participants Performing Py-GC-MS, TED-GC-MS, and TGA-FTIR were able to correctly identify all polymers and to report reasonable quantification results in the investigated concentration range (PE: 20.0 μg/mg, PP: 5.70 μg/mg; PS: 2.20 μg/mg, PET: 18.0 μg/mg). Although for the other methods limitations exists regarding the detection of specific polymers, they showed potential as alternative approaches for polymer quantification in solid environmental matrices.