- Smallest microplastics in oceans – which go largely undetected - identified more effectively with innovative and cheap new method, developed by University of Warwick researchers
- New method can detect microplastics as small as the width of a human hair, using a fluorescent dye
- Smallest microplastics in oceans – which go largely undetected - identified more effectively with innovative and cheap new method, developed by University of Warwick researchers
- New method can detect microplastics as small as the width of a human hair, using a fluorescent dye
- Previous scientific field work surveys report that only 1% of the plastic waste in the oceans has been found – this new research could lead to discovering the missing 99%
?The smallest microplastics in our oceans – which go largely undetected and are potentially harmful – could be more effectively identified using an innovative and inexpensive new method, developed by researchers at the University of Warwick.
New research, led by Gabriel Erni-Cassola and Dr. Joseph A. Christie-Oleza from Warwick’s School of Life Sciences, has established a pioneering way to detect the smaller fraction of microplastics – many as small as 20 micrometres (comparable to the width of a human hair or wool fibre) - using a fluorescent dye.
The dye specifically binds to plastic particles, and renders them easily visible under a fluorescence microscope. This allows scientists to distinguish microplastics amongst other natural materials and makes it easy to accurately quantify them.
Read more at University of Warwick
Image: Smaller ocean microplastics (below 1mm) made visible with fluorescent dye -- viewed through a microscope. (Credit: University of Warwick)
