Novel concepts for the detection of microplastics

master's thesis

Jan Ornik (Author), Nataša Vaupotič (Mentor), Jan C. Balzer (Co-mentor)

Abstract

Microplastics are small pieces of plastic (smaller than 5 mm), which can be found in the environment and can be dangerous to living beings. It is expected that the abundance of microplastics will rise in the future. However, there are still no standard protocols for monitoring the microplastic abundance, which should include spectroscopic methods for an automated discrimination in order to produce reliable data. In this work we examined a new approach for microplastic detection based on the photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. To test the applicability of the proposed method a low-cost setup was built and characterized. The PL spectra from 27 different materials were collected and compared. The comparison of the spectra shows that the differentiation between samples is possible, especially between the plastic and non-plastic materials. Furthermore, the measured PL spectra also differ for different plastic types and other materials. However, the presence of dyes in plastic samples and incrustation of plastic samples by organic materials can affect the PL spectra and make the recognition troublesome. Disregarding organic materials and dyed plastic, the material differentiation based on the acquired PL spectra using neural networks resulted in 99.3 % accuracy when categorizing samples into plastic and non-plastic materials and 63.1 % accuracy when categorizing samples among different plastic and non-plastic materials. The promising results show that the PL spectroscopy of microplastics could outperform the spectroscopic methods used so far, by means of measurement speed and lateral resolution.

Keywords

microplastics;detection methods;photoluminescence spectroscopy;neural networks;master theses;

Data

Language:	English
Year of publishing:	2016
Typology:	2.09 - Master's Thesis
Organization:	UM FNM - Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics
Publisher:	[J. Ornik]
UDC:	543.42(043.2)
COBISS:	22411528
Views:	1355
Downloads:	134
Average score:	0 (0 votes)
Metadata:

Other data

Secondary language:	Slovenian
Secondary title:	Novi načini zaznavanja mikroplastike
Secondary abstract:	Mikroplastika so delci plastike, manjši od 5 mm, ki jih najdemo v okolju in so lahko nevarni živim bitjem. Pričakuje se, da se bo onesnaženost okolja z mikroplastiko s časom povečevala. Kljub temu še ni izdelanih nadzornih protokolov, ki bi vključevali spektroskopske metode, s katerimi bi lahko avtomatizirano analizirali vzorce mikroplastike in tako zagotovili natančne in reprezentativne podatke o onesnaženju. V magistrskem delu analiziramo primernost fotoluminiscenčne spektroskopije za zaznavanje mikroplastike. Z zgrajeno, cenovno ugodno postavitvijo za fotoluminiscenčno spektroskopijo smo obravnavali 27 različnih vzorcev. Primerjava zajetih spektrov fotoluminiscence je pokazala, da se spektri razlikujejo, še posebej za plastične in neplastične materiale. Prav tako se spektri razlikujejo za različne materiale kot tudi različne vrste plastike. Prisotnost barvil v plastičnih materialih in organski materiali na plastiki lahko bistveno vplivajo na spekter zaznane svetlobe, kar lahko predstavlja problem za prepoznavanje mikroplastike. Brez upoštevanja plastike z barvili in vzorcev z organskimi materiali je uspešnost razločevanja vzorcev plastike od vzorcev iz neplastičnih materialov z nevronskimi mrežami 99,3 %, za klasifikacijo različnih vrst plastičnih in neplastičnih materialov pa je uspešnost metode 63,1 %. Vzpodbudni rezultati kažejo, da je fotoluminiscenčna spektroskopija primerna metoda za detekcijo mikroplastike in bi z vidika hitrosti in lateralne ločljivosti lahko bila boljša rešitev za njeno zaznavanje v primerjavi z obstoječimi spektroskopskimi metodami.
Secondary keywords:	mikroplastika;metode zaznavanja;fotoluminiscenčna spektroskopija;nevronske mreže;magistrska dela;
URN:	URN:SI:UM:
Type (COBISS):	Master's thesis/paper
Thesis comment:	Univ. v Mariboru, Fak. za naravoslovje in matematiko, Oddelek za fiziko
Pages:	V, 69 f.
ID:	9151568