Plastic Quantification and Polyethylene Overestimation in Agricultural Soil Using Large-Volume Pyrolysis and TD-GC-MS/MS

Title data

Bartnick, Ryan ; Rodionov, Andrei ; Oster, Simon David Jakob ; Löder, Martin G. J. ; Lehndorff, Eva:
Plastic Quantification and Polyethylene Overestimation in Agricultural Soil Using Large-Volume Pyrolysis and TD-GC-MS/MS.
In: Environmental Science & Technology. Vol. 58 (2024) Issue 29 . - pp. 13047-13055.
ISSN 0013-936X
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.3c10101

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Abstract in another language

Quantification of microplastics in soil is needed to understand their impact and fate in agricultural areas. Often, low sample volume and removal of organic matter (OM) limit representative quantification. We present a method which allows simultaneous quantification of microplastics in homogenized, large environmental samples (>1 g) and tested polyethylene (PE), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and polystyrene (PS) (200–400 μm) overestimation by fresh and diagenetically altered OM in agricultural soils using a new combination of large-volume pyrolysis adsorption with thermal desorption–gas chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (TD-GC-MS/MS). Characteristic MS/MS profiles for PE, PET, and PS were derived from plastic pyrolysis and allowed for a new mass separation of PET. Volume-defined standard particles (125 × 125 × 20 μm3) were developed with the respective weight (PE: 0.48 ± 0.12, PET: 0.50 ± 0.10, PS: 0.31 ± 0.08 μg), which can be spiked into solid samples. Diagenetically altered OM contained compounds that could be incorrectly identified as PE and suggest a mathematical correction to account for OM contribution. With a standard addition method, we quantified PS, PET, and PEcorrected in two agricultural soils. This provides a base to simultaneously quantify a variety of microplastics in many environmental matrices and agricultural soil.