A straightforward method for measuring the range of apparent density of microplastics.

Density of microplastics has been regarded as the primary property that affect the distribution and bioavailability of microplastics in the water column. For measuring the density of microplastis, we developed a simple and rapid method based on density gradient solutions. In this study, we tested four solvents to make the density gradient solutions, i.e., ethanol (0.8 g/cm3), ultrapure water (1.0 g/cm3), saturated NaI (1.8 g/cm3) and ZnCl2 (1.8 g/cm3). Density of microplastics was measured via observing the float or sink status in the density gradient solutions. We found that density gradient solutions made from ZnCl2 had a larger uncertainty in measuring density than that from NaI, most likely due to a higher surface tension of ZnCl2 solution. Solutions made from ethanol, ultrapure water, and NaI showed consistent density results with listed densities of commercial products, indicating that these density gradient solutions were suitable for measuring microplastics with a density range of 0.8-1.8 g/cm3.

• Publication year

  2018

• Venue

  Science of the Total Environment

• Publication date

  2018-10-01

• Fields of study

  Medicine, Materials Science, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.05.166PMID 29791889
• 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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