Discovered more than 40 years ago, microplastics have become a major environmental issue. With increasing global plastic production, microplastics are of growing concern. Landfills have been pinpointed as primary sources of microplastics to surface waters and they have, in fact, been identified and quantified as such. Due to their small size, different polymers and interfering non-plastic materials, microplastics are difficult to analyse in a complex matrix such as leachate. To elucidate the impact of pre-treatment on the performance of the most common microspectroscopical analytical methods employed, i.e., FT-IR and Raman, we re-examined previously pre-treated and analysed leachate samples. Additionally, we subjected duplicates of previously analysed samples to different concentrations of H2O2 with varied reaction times to digest and remove non-plastic organic matter. The pre-treated samples were subjected density separation and (re-)analysed by means of FT-IR and Raman microspectroscopy. Larger particles were also analysed by near-infrared (NIR) hyperspectral imaging. We found the concentration of H2O2 to impact the possibility of identifying and quantifying PET particles, with Raman scattering microspectroscopy enabling more particles to be counted than with FT-IR. This is likely due to the increased detectable particle size range, from around 50 mu m for FT-IR to 1 mu m for Raman scattering microspectroscopy. Optimized H2O2 concentration with subsequent density separation enabled to clearly identify numerous PE particles, but also PP, PS, and PET particles and carbon compounds with Raman scattering microspectroscopy. Hyperspectral imaging performed well for particles larger than 30 mu m.
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School of Energy and Environment, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, ChinaSchool of Energy and Environment, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
Qin, Zi-Hao
Siddiqui, Muhammad Ahmar
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School of Energy and Environment, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Water Technology Center, Hong Kong Branch of Chinese National Engineering Research Center for Control & Treatment of Heavy Metal Pollution, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong SARSchool of Energy and Environment, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
Siddiqui, Muhammad Ahmar
Xin, Xiayin
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Beaty Water Research Centre, Department of Civil Engineering, Union Street, Queen's University, Kingston,K7L 3Z6, CanadaSchool of Energy and Environment, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
Xin, Xiayin
Mou, Jin-Hua
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School of Energy and Environment, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, ChinaSchool of Energy and Environment, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
Mou, Jin-Hua
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Varjani, Sunita
Chen, Guanghao
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Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Water Technology Center, Hong Kong Branch of Chinese National Engineering Research Center for Control & Treatment of Heavy Metal Pollution, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong SARSchool of Energy and Environment, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
LOU ZiyangDONG BinCHAI XiaoliSONG YuZHAO YoucaiZHU Nanwen School of Environmental Science and EngineeringShanghai Jiaotong UniversityShanghai China The State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource ReuseSchool of Environmental Science and EngineeringTongji UniversityShanghai China
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LOU ZiyangDONG BinCHAI XiaoliSONG YuZHAO YoucaiZHU Nanwen School of Environmental Science and EngineeringShanghai Jiaotong UniversityShanghai China The State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource ReuseSchool of Environmental Science and EngineeringTongji UniversityShanghai China