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 editorsAsamoah, Benjamin O.; Salmi, Pauliina; Räty, Jukka; Ryymin, Kalle; Talvitie, Julia; Karjalainen, Anna K.; Kukkonen, Jussi V. K.; Roussey, Matthieu; Peiponen, Kai-Erik

Journal or seriesPolymers

eISSN2073-4360

Publication year2021

Volume13

Issue number6

Article number871

PublisherMDPI

Publication countrySwitzerland

Publication languageEnglish

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.3390/polym13060871

Publication open accessOpenly available

Publication channel open accessOpen 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.


Keywordsmicro-litterplastic wastemonitoringsewagedetectorsoptical instruments

Free keywordsmicroplastics; sludge; wastewater; Raman spectroscopy; laser speckle pattern; transmittance; sedimentation


Contributing organizations


Ministry reportingYes

Reporting Year2021

JUFO rating1


Last updated on 2024-26-03 at 09:19