Microplastics in the sea: new method
Joint press release:
Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon | Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH)
Microplastics in the sea could also originate largely from coatings and paints on ships and buildings in the sea. However, there is hardly any data on this. The Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon and the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) have therefore developed a new method to analyze such particles in environmental samples. They will soon be testing the method on samples from offshore wind farms in the North Sea. This will allow a better understanding of the pollution in the future and a sound assessment of the risk to the marine environment.
„Particle abrasion not only occurs in road traffic, but also in shipping, for example,“ explains BSH scientist Dr. Marten Fischer. „Paint coatings against fouling and corrosion consist mainly of plastics. Weathering and wear result in microplastics – particles smaller than five millimeters“. But how many particles end up in the sea?
To elucidate this, a research team combined various chemical-analytical and mathematical-statistical methods. „This allows us to detect different types of particles more accurately and distinguish them from each other reliably. This enables us to better assess the potential risk of particles from coatings and paints for the oceans,“ explains Dr. Lars Hildebrandt from the department Inorganic Environmental Chemistry, and lead author of the recently published study at Hereon.
The new method will be applied soon. Scientists will be on board the BSH research vessel ATAIR from April 22 to May 2, 2024 to monitor German marine waters. They will also take water and sediment samples in offshore wind farms and in the German Bight, which they will analyze in the laboratory for particles from paints and coatings. (Source: Joint Press Release Hereon/BSH)
Read the complete joint press release:
==> Microplastics in the sea: new method
==> Website Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH)
Hildebrandt, L., Fischer, M., Klein, O., Zimmermann, T., Fensky, F., Siems, A., Zonderman, A., Hengstmann, E., Kirchgeorg, T., & Pröfrock, D. (2024): An analytical strategy for challenging members of the microplastic family: Particles from anti-corrosion coatings. Journal of Hazardous Materials, Vol 470, 134173, doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2024.134173
Abstract:
Potentially hazardous particles from paints and functional coatings are an overlooked fraction of microplastic (MP) pollution since their accurate identification and quantification in environmental samples remains difficult. We have applied the most relevant techniques from the field of microplastic analysis for their suitability to chemically characterize anti-corrosion coatings containing a variety of polymer binders (LDIR, Raman and FTIR spectroscopy, Py-GC/MS) and inorganic additives (ICP-MS/MS). We present the basis of a possible toolbox to study the release and fate of coating particles in the (marine) environment. Our results indicate that, due to material properties, spectroscopic methods alone appear to be unsuitable for quantification of coating/paint particles and underestimate their environmental abundance. ICP-MS/MS and an optimized Py-GC/MS approach in combination with multivariate statistics enables a straightforward comparison of the multi-elemental and organic additive fingerprints of paint particles. The approach can improve the identification of unknown particles in environmental samples by an assignment to different typically used coating types. In future, this approach may facilitate allocation of emission sources of different environmental paint/coating particles. Indeed, future work will be required to tackle various remaining analytical challenges, such as optimized particle extraction/separation of environmental coating particles.
