Our primary interest is just understanding what is out there first, so I think we want to be able to count, size fraction, and maybe source plastic particles (the latter being least important in the beginning phase I guess). Give me your thoughts!
Some ideas:
1. Dry the water sample, get the dried microplastic particles, and perform particle size distribution analysis (e.g. with Malvern Mastersizer 3000). This will answer both the count, and size-fraction part.
2. To know their molecular weight distribution, you can do Gel Permeation Chromatography or MALDI-TOF analysis of the recovered microplastics.
3. You can subject the recovered microplastics to the 'solvent liquefaction' process using ethanol and then filter analyze this liquid in GC-MS. The monomers formed can be traced back to the polymers they came from.
(Reference for solvent liquefaction: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S136403212030647X)
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