TY - JOUR
T1 - Common laboratory reagents
T2 - Are they a double-edged sword in microplastics research?
AU - Kutralam-Muniasamy, Gurusamy
AU - Shruti, V. C.
AU - Pérez-Guevara, Fermín
AU - Roy, Priyadarsi D.
AU - Elizalde-Martínez, I.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2023/6/1
Y1 - 2023/6/1
N2 - Understanding and communicating instances of microplastic contamination is critical for enabling plastic-free transitions. While microplastics research uses a variety of commercial chemicals and laboratory liquids, the impact of microplastics on these materials remains unknown. To fill this knowledge gap, the current study investigated microplastics abundance and their characteristics in laboratory waters (distilled, deionized, and Milli-Q), salts (NaCl and CaCl2), chemical solutions (H2O2, KOH and NaOH), and ethanol from various research laboratories and commercial brands. The mean abundance of microplastics in water, salt, chemical solutions, and ethanol samples was 30.21 ± 30.40 (L−1), 24.00 ± 19.00 (10 g−1), 187.00 ± 45.00 (L−1), and 27.63 ± 9.53 (L−1), respectively. Data comparisons revealed significant discrepancies between the samples in terms of microplastic abundance. Fibers (81 %) were the most common microplastics, followed by fragments (16 %) and films (3 %); 95 % of them were <500 μm, with the smallest and largest particle sizes recorded being 26 μm and 2.30 mm, respectively. Microplastic polymers discovered included polyethylene, polypropylene, polyester, nylon, acrylic, paint chips, cellophane, and viscose. These findings lay the groundwork for identifying common laboratory reagents as a potential contributor to microplastic contamination in samples, and we offer solutions that should be integrated into data processing to produce accurate results. Taken together, this study shows that commonly used reagents not only play a key role in the microplastic separation process but also contain microplastic contamination themselves, requiring the attention of researchers to promote quality control during microplastic analysis and commercial suppliers in formulating novel prevention strategies.
AB - Understanding and communicating instances of microplastic contamination is critical for enabling plastic-free transitions. While microplastics research uses a variety of commercial chemicals and laboratory liquids, the impact of microplastics on these materials remains unknown. To fill this knowledge gap, the current study investigated microplastics abundance and their characteristics in laboratory waters (distilled, deionized, and Milli-Q), salts (NaCl and CaCl2), chemical solutions (H2O2, KOH and NaOH), and ethanol from various research laboratories and commercial brands. The mean abundance of microplastics in water, salt, chemical solutions, and ethanol samples was 30.21 ± 30.40 (L−1), 24.00 ± 19.00 (10 g−1), 187.00 ± 45.00 (L−1), and 27.63 ± 9.53 (L−1), respectively. Data comparisons revealed significant discrepancies between the samples in terms of microplastic abundance. Fibers (81 %) were the most common microplastics, followed by fragments (16 %) and films (3 %); 95 % of them were <500 μm, with the smallest and largest particle sizes recorded being 26 μm and 2.30 mm, respectively. Microplastic polymers discovered included polyethylene, polypropylene, polyester, nylon, acrylic, paint chips, cellophane, and viscose. These findings lay the groundwork for identifying common laboratory reagents as a potential contributor to microplastic contamination in samples, and we offer solutions that should be integrated into data processing to produce accurate results. Taken together, this study shows that commonly used reagents not only play a key role in the microplastic separation process but also contain microplastic contamination themselves, requiring the attention of researchers to promote quality control during microplastic analysis and commercial suppliers in formulating novel prevention strategies.
KW - Cross-contamination
KW - Density
KW - Digestion
KW - Extraction
KW - Quality assurance
KW - Quality control
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85149435996&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162610
DO - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162610
M3 - Artículo
C2 - 36894090
AN - SCOPUS:85149435996
SN - 0048-9697
VL - 875
JO - Science of the Total Environment
JF - Science of the Total Environment
M1 - 162610
ER -