Analysis of microplastics in consumer products by single particle-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry using the carbon-13 isotope.

Single particle inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (SP-ICP-MS) has become a well-established technique for the detection, size characterization and quantification of inorganic nanoparticles but its use for the analysis of micro- and nanoparticles composed of carbon has been scarce. Here, the analysis of a microplastic suspensions by ICP-MS operated in single particle mode using microsecond dwell times is comprehensively discussed. The detection of polystyrene microparticles down to 1.2 μm was achieved by monitoring the 13C isotope. Plastic microparticles of up to 5 μm were completely volatized and their components atomized, which allowed the detection of microplastics, their quantification using aqueous dissolved carbon standards, and the measurement of the size-distribution of the detected particles. Limits of detection of 100 particles per milliliter were achieved for an acquisition time of 5 min. The method developed was applied to the screening of microplastics in personal care products and released from food packagings. The chemical identity of the detected microplastics was confirmed by attenuated total reflectance Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy.

• Publication year

  2021

• Venue

  Talanta: The International Journal of Pure and Applied Analytical Chemistry

• Publication date

  2021-01-01

• Fields of study

  Medicine, Materials Science, Chemistry

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1016/J.TALANTA.2020.121486PMID 33076096
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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