A1 Journal article (refereed)
Optical Monitoring of Microplastics Filtrated from Wastewater Sludge and Suspended in Ethanol (2021)
Asamoah, B. O., Salmi, P., Räty, J., Ryymin, K., Talvitie, J., Karjalainen, A. K., Kukkonen, J. V. K., Roussey, M., & Peiponen, K.-E. (2021). Optical Monitoring of Microplastics Filtrated from Wastewater Sludge and Suspended in Ethanol. Polymers, 13(6), Article 871. https://doi.org/10.3390/polym13060871
JYU authors or editors
Publication details
All authors or editors: Asamoah, Benjamin O.; Salmi, Pauliina; Räty, Jukka; Ryymin, Kalle; Talvitie, Julia; Karjalainen, Anna K.; Kukkonen, Jussi V. K.; Roussey, Matthieu; Peiponen, Kai-Erik
Journal or series: Polymers
eISSN: 2073-4360
Publication year: 2021
Volume: 13
Issue number: 6
Article number: 871
Publisher: MDPI
Publication country: Switzerland
Publication language: English
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/polym13060871
Publication open access: Openly available
Publication channel open access: Open Access channel
Publication is parallel published (JYX): https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/75025
Abstract
The abundance of microplastics (MPs) in the atmosphere, on land, and especially in water bodies is well acknowledged. In this study, we establish an optical method based on three different techniques, namely, specular reflection to probe the medium, transmission spectroscopy measurements for the detection and identification, and a speckle pattern for monitoring the sedimentation of MPs filtrated from wastewater sludge and suspended in ethanol. We used first Raman measurements to estimate the presence and types of different MPs in wastewater sludge samples. We also used microscopy to identify the shapes of the main MPs. This allowed us to create a teaching set of samples to be characterized with our optical method. With the developed method, we clearly show that MPs from common plastics, such as polypropylene (PP), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polystyrene (PS), and polyethylene (PE), are present in wastewater sludge and can be identified. Additionally, the results also indicate that the density of the plastics, which influences the sedimentation, is an essential parameter to consider in optical detection of microplastics in complex natural environments. All of the methods are in good agreement, thus validating the optics-based solution.
Keywords: micro-litter; plastic waste; monitoring; sewage; detectors; optical instruments
Free keywords: microplastics; sludge; wastewater; Raman spectroscopy; laser speckle pattern; transmittance; sedimentation
Contributing organizations
Ministry reporting: Yes
Reporting Year: 2021
JUFO rating: 1