Microplastics in the environment
For the last 15 years, an increasing number of researchers have addressed the topic of "Microplastics and their impact on the environment". Following a report of the NDR in June 2014, this was fiercely discussed in Germany. Prof. Dr. Gerd Liebezeit of the Carl-von-Ossietzky University in Oldenburg had analyzed beer and mineral water looking for microplastics and found them. In a number of analyzed beverages he was able to prove the presence of smallest plastic fibers. There were also microplastics found in food products.
Suitable methods to identify and quantify have to be developed
Looking for microplastics in different matrices, something was apparent quite fast:
suitable analytical methods had to be developed and established to get reliable results. Prof. Dr. Elke Fries et al. describe in Environ. Sci.: Processes Impacts, 2013, 15, 1949, how pyrolysis-GC/MS can be used effectively to identify marine microplastic particles.
Using Pyrolysis-GC/MS to determine the structural characteristics of microplastics
Pyrolysis-GC/MS is particularly suited for analysis of microplastics as no sample preparation is required. Sample amounts as little as 50 µg are sufficient to get reproducible results.
The furnace is the heart of the pyrolysis and has to be perfectly adjusted for a subsequent analysis of the desorbed and pyrolized substances in GC/MS. SIM recommends the Multi-Shot Pyrolyzer by Frontier Lab, which uses the unique Double-Shot process.
During this process the sample is heated as usual for thermal desorption. After desorption - unlike in other systems - the sample does not stay in the furnace, but is automatically drawn from the hot zone. The sample stays in slightly higher than room temperature until the micro furnace is heated up to pyrolysis temperature. The sample then gets dropped at very high velocity into the tempered pyrolysis zone.
Advantages
The Multi-Shot Pyrolyzer EGA/PY-3030D with a low mass ceramic heater has proven itself in practice and offers crucial advantages compared to pyrolysis systems with filament-heating elements:
- Filament-heating elements age over time and display a different temperature behavior.
- Samples are always colder than the preset temperature in pyrolyzers with filament-heating elements. This has an adverse effect on the downstreamed sample analysis.
In addition, the Multi-Shot Pyrolyzer EGA/PY-3030D convinces with
- simplest handling of samples through weighing in sample cup (approx. 50 – 200 µg),
- no condensation of gases at cold spots during transition to GC due to an interface-heating,
- simple and fast identification of unknown substances due to the F-search software, which can also be used to create a customer-specific library or to expand the Frontier Lab libraries,
- a robust autosampler for up to 48 samples.
Do you have any questions about the application or the Multi-Shot Pyrolyzer EGA/PY-3030D? Please contact us.