That is an easy question as there has been a great deal of research interest in this area over the past decade. Since POLYMERS are what you are essentially looking for and they are usually non-volatile and would get stuck in most types of chromatography columns the preferred techniques we use for most include both FTIR and Raman spectroscopy.

One other technique which is used for the smallest, nanoparticles of microplastics is MS " time of flight mass spectrometry " utilizing a membrane to capture the particles on.

• A quick search on the web (e.g. Google or BING) would yield many review papers and articles to guide you. Please take the time to invest in doing your own research. It is one of the most important skills you can learn.

Yes these are probably standard methods, I wonder if anyone knows/tried any alternative approaches ... thank you ...

What better material would you suggest for this application (drinking water network)?

Please look at the following below links which may help you in your analysis:

https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/326499/9789241516198-eng.pdf?ua=1

https://www.thermofisher.com/blog/materials/detecting-microplastics-in-drinking-water-and-freshwater/

https://www.veitur.is/sites/veitur.is/files/atoms/files/microplastic_in_drinking_water_sources_and_distribution_systems_in_iceland.pdf

Thanks

Please also check the following link;

DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2019.02.054

Article Microplastics in Freshwaters and Drinking Water: Critical Re...

Regards

L.S

Follow this link

Article A Review of Analytical Techniques for Quantifying Microplast...