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Updated: Sep 2, 2025
Separation and Identification of Conventional Microplastics from Farmland Soils
Published on: March 21, 2025
A rapid staged protocol for efficient recovery of microplastics from soil and sediment matrices based on hydrophobic
Mingzhe Yuan1, Yuning Zhang2, Weihao Guo2
1Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Macau, Taipa, Macau 999078, China; Centre of Reproduction, Development and Aging (CRDA), Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Macau, Taipa, Macau 999078, China.
Abstract:
Microplastics (MPs) in soil and sediment (SS) matrices are emerging pollution hazards to ecosystems and humans. To mitigate MP pollution, suitable extractors and associated extracting solutions are required to efficiently separate MPs from SS matrices. In this study, we introduced a four-stage microplastic extractor (ME) device and investigated the fractional separation efficiencies of three extracting solutions (ultrapure water, saturated NaCl, and corn oil-in-NaCl) plus aeration, magnetic stirring, and electric stirring for three kinds of SS matrices (loam soil, sandy sediment, and muddy sediment) with four types of virgin MP pellets (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), polycarbonate (PC), polypropylene, and polystyrene). In addition, fragments of these four types of post-consumer MPs were also tested by the ME device. The mean recovery efficiencies of these MPs in the three SS matrices were 88.3 %-100 %. Oil-in-NaCl further improved the recovery efficiencies for the denser ABS and PC up to 40 % based on NaCl extraction.
