Identification of microplastics in wastewater after cascade filtration using Pyrolysis-GC–MS

The combination of a representative microplastic sampling method and a fast-quantitative analysis using Pyrolysis-GC–MS (Py-GC–MS) for investigation of the microplastic load and mass balances is presented in this work. A representative microplastic filtration requires a method allowing quick extraction of the sample. The developed steel based cascadic microplastic filtration uses steel basket filters with mesh sizes of 100 μm, 50 μm and 10 μm and a mean recovery of 86 % without cross contamination was achieved. Thermoanalytical methods have the advantage of minimal sample preparation with short analysis times. The presented platinum filament-based Py-GC–MS method requires little sample preparation and quantification limits for polystyrene (PS) and polyethylene (PE) were 0.03 μg and 1 μg absolute, respectively. The relative standard deviation of the analytical method is 11 %. The combined method allows representative sampling and analysis of MP from water bodies and waste water treatment plants within 48 h. • Presentation of a validated steel based cascadic microplastic filtration plant. • Fast and reproduceable Py-GC–MS analysis method for microplastic. • Py-GC–MS allows microplastic analysis with little sample preparation.