Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Marine Pollution
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2024.1450330
This article is part of the Research Topic Environmental Behavior Processes and Mechanisms of Organic Pollutants in Global Coastal Waters View all 3 articles

Isolation of seawater microplastics from biologically rich samples using an alkaline K2S2O8 method

Provisionally accepted
Nan Gao Nan Gao 1,2*Xiangfeng Kong Xiangfeng Kong 1,2Yanmin Zhang Yanmin Zhang 1,3*Yang Gao Yang Gao 1,2*Zhang Yuanbiao Zhang Yuanbiao 4,5Yan Liu Yan Liu 1,2*
  • 1 Institute of Oceanographic Instrumentation, Qilu University of Technology (Shandong Academy of Sciences), Qingdao, China
  • 2 Laoshan Laboratory, Qingdao, China
  • 3 Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, China
  • 4 Key Laboratory of Global Change and Marine Atmospheric Chemistry, Ministry of Natural Resources, Xiamen, China
  • 5 Third Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Xiamen, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    In recent years, microplastics, especially marine microplastic pollution, have received global attention as a new type of environmental problem. The establishment of accurate and efficient methods for the detection of microplastics is the basis for in-depth research on the transport, transformation, fate, and ecotoxicological effects of microplastics in the environment. Microplastics in seawater frequently mix with biological tissues, resulting in challenges when identifying samples. However, commonly used pretreatment protocols for microplastics often suffer from long digestion times, inadequate digestion, and the risk of potentially damaging microplastics. We compared the digestion efficiencies of five digestion reagents and provided further insights into two advanced oxidation methods involving Fenton's reagent and an innovative alkaline K2S2O8 protocol based on sulfate and hydroxyl radicals. Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), and carbonyl index (CI) analyses revealed that the alkaline K2S2O8 method could enhance the reaction efficiency while reducing the potential for functional group damage during microplastic pretreatment. Moreover, the proposed K2S2O8 method was applied to the pretreatment of field seawater samples, and field microplastics were effectively separated from biologically rich samples. Thus, a digestion protocol based on alkaline K2S2O8 provides an effective way to isolate seawater microplastics from biologically rich samples.

    Keywords: Microplastic, alkaline K2S2O8, Seawater, pretreatment, spectrometer analysis

    Received: 17 Jun 2024; Accepted: 22 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Gao, Kong, Zhang, Gao, Yuanbiao and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Nan Gao, Institute of Oceanographic Instrumentation, Qilu University of Technology (Shandong Academy of Sciences), Qingdao, China
    Yanmin Zhang, Institute of Oceanographic Instrumentation, Qilu University of Technology (Shandong Academy of Sciences), Qingdao, China
    Yang Gao, Institute of Oceanographic Instrumentation, Qilu University of Technology (Shandong Academy of Sciences), Qingdao, China
    Yan Liu, Institute of Oceanographic Instrumentation, Qilu University of Technology (Shandong Academy of Sciences), Qingdao, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.