Microplastic pollution and its potential impact on human health is an area of significant concern. Increasingly, Raman microscopy is being used to quantify microplastic contamination from samples of food and drinking water.

In this webinar we present a real-world case study on microplastics with Luca Maurizi, from Aalborg University, Denmark. Luca will present his sampling and analytical methodology for microplastic identification in drinking water. Samples were collected from a water treatment plant and analysed using a Renishaw inVia™ confocal Raman microscope.

The high spatial resolution of the inVia microscope detected incomplete removal of particles smaller than 10 µm. The Raman analysis method estimates that the daily microplastic intake is up to 7,000 times higher than previous estimates obtained using µFTIR [1]. We also discuss quantitative Raman analysis results on nanoplastics between 0.45 µm to 1 µm in size. We will also demonstrate how Renishaw’s Particle Analysis software enables a fully automated workflow for microplastic identification and characterisation.

Luca Maurizi’s research is a part of the MONPLAS project. His research aims to develop new analytical methodologies for micro- and nanoplastic identification and quantification in drinking water, and their degree of diffusion in relation to common distribution networks.

[1] Kirstein, I. V., Hensel, F., Gomiero, A., Iordachescu, L., Vianello, A., Wittgren, H. B., & Vollertsen, J., 2021. Drinking plastics? – Quantification and qualification of microplastics in drinking water distribution systems by µFTIR and Py-GCMS. Water research, 188, 116519.