Martín de la Fuente, Alba, Marhuenda Egea, Frutos Carlos, Ros, Margarita, Pascual, José Antonio, Sáez-Tovar, José Antonio, Martínez Sabater, Encarnación, Peñalver, Rosa
Thermogravimetry coupled with mass spectrometry successfully used to quantify polyethylene and polystyrene microplastics in organic amendments
Environmental Research. 2022, 213: 113583. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2022.113583
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10045/124305
DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2022.113583
ISSN: 0013-9351 (Print)
Abstract: 
The global consumption of plastic is growing year by year, producing small plastic pieces known as microplastics (MPs) that adversely affect ecosystems. The use of organic amendments (compost and manure) polluted with MPs affects the quality of agricultural soils, and these MPs can be incorporated into the food chain and negatively impact human health. Current European legislation only considers large plastic particles in organic amendments. There is no information regarding MP pollution. Thus, the development of a methodology to support future legislation ensuring the quality of agricultural soils and food safety is necessary. This proposed methodology is based on thermogravimetry coupled with mass spectrometry to quantify polyethylene and polystyrene (PE and PS) MPs through their mass spectrometry signal intensity of characteristic PE (m/z 41, 43 and 56) and PS (m/z 78 and 104) ions. This method has been validated with several organic amendments where the MP content ranged from 52.6 to 4365.7 mg kg−1 for PE-MPs and from 1.1 to 64.3 mg kg−1 for PS-MPs. The proposed methodology is a quick and robust analytical method to quantify MPs in organic amendments that could support new legislation.
Keywords:Thermogravimetry-mass spectrometry, Microplastic detection, Organic amendments, Polyethylene, Polystyrene
Elsevier
info:eu-repo/semantics/article