Science Daily | Source: University Of Warwick | November 23, 2017:
The smallest microplastics in our oceans — which go largely undetected and are potentially harmful — could be more effectively identified using an innovative and inexpensive new method, developed by researchers at the University of Warwick.
New research, led by Gabriel Erni-Cassola and Dr. Joseph A. Christie-Oleza from Warwick’s School of Life Sciences, has established a pioneering way to detect the smaller fraction of microplastics – many as small as 20 micrometres (comparable to the width of a human hair or wool fibre) – using a fluorescent dye.
The dye specifically binds to plastic particles, and renders them easily visible under a fluorescence microscope. This allows scientists to distinguish microplastics amongst other natural materials and makes it easy to accurately quantify them.
To test their new method, the researchers took samples from surface sea water and beach sand from the English coast around Plymouth – and, after extracting the microplastics from these environmental samples, they applied their method and were able to quantify the smaller fraction of microplastics effectively.
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