Hi there,
I want to isolate microplastic particles from fish guts and water samples.
My initial idea was to extract guts from selected specimens and then dissolve the whole guts using 10% KOH and then filter it. Another possibility would be to manually open the guts and wash out its content and then dissolve gut contents in 1 M sodium hydroxide and then suck this through a filter this by using a vacuum pump.Identification of polymers is planned to be conducted using FT-IR microscopy, but after I shipped them to collaborators.
I would love to use some kind of (foldable and soluble) filter material (instead of stiff aluminumoxide or borosilicate filters) in my vacuum-pump-filtration setup. In that that I can use for my "liquid solution" of guts / gut contents with the wanted size range of polymers. In this case I could just fold my filters with the polymers on them and send them away, where in the best scenario my partners could just dissolve the filters without harming my polymers and filter the particles through an aluminumoxide filter and then directly put them under the FTIR to avoid Interferences.
In short, my question is :
Is anyone aware of filters / filter materials than can help me to seperate polymer particles from water / "fish gut solution" samples and allows me to fold /store and ship them, so my collaborators can then analyze quantity and material without problems caused by the filter itself?
Thanks for your thoughts on this.
Marko
Hey Mina, thanks for the advice. But I wasn't looking for a way to spike my samples but rather for a filtermaterial that allows me to extract the polymers, fold the filter (as you would do for filtrated particulate organic matter) and then store the folded filter with my microplastics on them.
If I find a foldable filtermaterial, that can be dissolved afterwards without harming my microplastics, I could send the folded filters away with little risk of losing sample materials from my filters during shipping.
Please look at the following below links which may help you in your analysis:
https://bio-protocol.org/e3087
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309897220_A_high-performance_protocol_for_extraction_of_microplastics_in_fish
https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2017/ay/c6ay02396g#!divAbstract
Thank
Dear Marko,
Your question is very interesting and I would be Keen to know if there are any filters that can dissolve later.
However, I am also curious to know why do you want the filters to get dissolved. I understand that sending the samples to your collaborators and subsequent opening and examining the folded filters may result in loss of microplastic. However, dissolving the filter and refiltering it (with or without vaccum) may also result in loss! More the exchange of surfaces, more the loss.
Hope you get the solution you are looking for.
Hey Anju. We dissolved Cellulosenitrate filters in 1M KoH. So this is our preferred scenario at the moment. However, these filters can not be used unter FTIR without intereferences.
We plan to dissolve fish guts in 1M KOH, neutralize the solution after dissolving and then filter the solution though cellulosetritrate filters. Then we will fold those filters to minimize loss, put them back into glass containers and ship them (dry) overseas.
Arriving at our partners, they will then dissolve the filter in the glasscontainers, filter the solution again, over aluminiumoxide filters and directly analyze the filtrate under the FTIR.
Did you try Glass fibre filters? They may dissolve but again may interfer with FTIR. You can check which of the two out of cellulose nitrate and glass fibre is least interfering and use, if no other dissolvable filter is available.
We use 30 micron mesh for filtering and fold the same till further analysis. Next we separate the potential particles under steriomicroscope and the the separated particle is analyzed under ftir. So, basically we have removed the interfering filter from our analysis.
Hi Marko, I’m investigating the MPs on fish gut. The organic materials will be destruct nicely by 5 mL 0.5% dissolve SLS and 10 mL (1M) NaOH within a week in the room temperature. In this case, no need filter. Wish you luck.
Endar
Dear Endar,
How do you plan to examine the solution under FTIR?
And I guess the issue that Marko is concerned about is the transport of filter paper to overseas lab for further analysis. I think your method may work very well if you are suggesting that the organic matter after dissolving in SLS and NaOH will be dried up on the petri plate and the same plate can then be shipped overseas for FTIR! Can you please confirm?
Thank you, Anju.
I see what the critical step Marko asked.
Yes, it has been a challenging work to analyze MPs without loss. The quantity analyze should be done first before FTIR step. In my case, I found many MPs at one sample. I use one drop sample then covered by coverglass for the next step. Petri dish also work but may contaminated by the airborne MPs. We just try the minimal loss.
In Marko case, why not to send MPs at sample solution step? then did preparation for FTIR after quantity analysis in the same location.
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