Patterns of microparticles in blank samples: A study to inform best practices for microplastic analysis
Quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) techniques are critical to analytical chemistry, and thus the analysis of microplastics. Procedural blanks are a key component of QA/QC for quantifying and characterizing background contamination. Although procedural blanks are becoming increasingly comm...
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| Vydané v: | Chemosphere (Oxford) Ročník 333; s. 138883 |
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| Hlavní autori: | , , , , , , , , , , |
| Médium: | Journal Article |
| Jazyk: | English |
| Vydavateľské údaje: |
England
Elsevier Ltd
01.08.2023
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| Predmet: | |
| ISSN: | 0045-6535, 1879-1298, 1879-1298 |
| On-line prístup: | Získať plný text |
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| Shrnutí: | Quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) techniques are critical to analytical chemistry, and thus the analysis of microplastics. Procedural blanks are a key component of QA/QC for quantifying and characterizing background contamination. Although procedural blanks are becoming increasingly common in microplastics research, how researchers acquire a blank and report and/or use blank contamination data varies. Here, we use the results of laboratory procedural blanks from a method evaluation study to inform QA/QC procedures for microplastics quantification and characterization. Suspected microplastic contamination in the procedural blanks, collected by 12 participating laboratories, had between 7 and 511 particles, with a mean of 80 particles per sample (±SD 134). The most common color and morphology reported were black fibers, and the most common size fraction reported was 20–212 μm. The lack of even smaller particles is likely due to limits of detection versus lack of contamination, as very few labs reported particles <20 μm. Participating labs used a range of QA/QC techniques, including air filtration, filtered water, and working in contained/‘enclosed’ environments. Our analyses showed that these procedures did not significantly affect blank contamination. To inform blank subtraction, several subtraction methods were tested. No clear pattern based on total recovery was observed. Despite our results, we recommend commonly accepted procedures such as thorough training and cleaning procedures, air filtration, filtered water (e.g., MilliQ, deionized or reverse osmosis), non-synthetic clothing policies and ‘enclosed’ air flow systems (e.g., clean cabinet). We also recommend blank subtracting by a combination of particle characteristics (color, morphology and size fraction), as it likely provides final microplastic particle characteristics that are most representative of the sample. Further work should be done to assess other QA/QC parameters, such as the use of other types of blanks (e.g., field blanks, matrix blanks) and limits of detection and quantification.
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•Results from a method evaluation study inform QA/QC.•Procedural contamination is common in microplastics samples.•Laboratory and/or field blanks are essential to microplastics research.•Future work should inform methods to reduce and report contamination. |
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| Bibliografia: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 All authors conceptualized the questions and methodologies together in a working group. KM, KH, ECM, CTL performed data analysis and KM created figures for the manuscript. The writing was led by KM. All authors contributed to the editing. CR and CW led project administration. Author contributions |
| ISSN: | 0045-6535 1879-1298 1879-1298 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2023.138883 |