Automated rapid & intelligent microplastics mapping by FTIR microscopy: A Python–based workflow

The analysis of environmental microplastic particles using FTIR microscopy is a challenging task, due to the very high number of individual particles within a single sample. Therefore, automatable, fast and robust approaches are highly requested. Micro particles were commonly enriched on filters, and sub- or the whole filter area was investigated, which took more than 20h and produced millions of data, which had to be evaluated. This paper presents a new approach of such filter area analysis using an intelligent algorithm to measure only those spots on a filter that would produce evaluable FTIR data. Empty spaces or IR absorbers like carbon black particles were not measured which successfully reduced the total analysis time from 50h to 7h. The presented method is based on system independent Python workflow and can easily be implemented on other FTIR systems. • Fast and intelligent FTIR microscopy area mapping without FPA detector; • Total time reduction from 50 h to 7 h; • Platform independent approach based on Python.