Person:
Schniegler, Sara

ORCID

Schniegler

Sara

Deutschland, Umweltbundesamt, Fachgebiet III.2.6 - Abwassertechnikforschung, Abwasserentsorgung

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Development and testing of a fractionated filtration for sampling of microplastics in water
(2019) Bannick, Claus Gerhard; Obermaier, Nathan; Ricking, Mathias; Schniegler, Sara; Szewzyk, Regine; Barthel, Anne-Kathrin
A harmonization of sampling, sample preparation and detection is pivotal in order to obtain comparable data on microplastics (MP) in the environment. This paper develops and proposes a suitable sampling concept for waterbodies that considers different plastic specific properties and influencing factors in the environment. Both artificial water including defined MP fractions and the discharge of a wastewater treatment plant were used to verify the derived sampling procedure, sample preparation and the subsequent analysis of MP using thermal extraction-desorption gas chromatography - mass spectrometry (TED-GC-MS). A major finding of this paper is that an application of various particle size classes greatly improves the practical handling of the sampling equipment. Size classes also enable the TED-GC-MS to provide any data on the MP size distribution, a substantial sampling property affecting both the necessary sampling volume and the optimal sampling depth. In the artificial body of water with defined MP fractions, the recovery rates ranged from 80-110%, depending on the different MP types and MP size classes. In the wastewater discharge, we found both polyethylene and polystyrene in different size classes and quantities. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.