Welcome to the PRIORITY Training School "Recent Trends in Microplastic Research" hosted by the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology in Jena, Germany - Day 1 -

Over 60 participants from 26 countries can establish new connections and explore current trends and technologies for micro and nanoplastic research! ...

Hi everyone! Day 3️⃣ of Takeover!

Today I'm going to show how I analyzed my greywater samples filters by pyrolysis-GC/MS.

I started by punching two rows of each filter and transferred them to a cup pyrolysis. Then, I added the internal standard. And that's it! It's quite simple 🙂

The next step was to put all the samples in the autosampler of the Pyrolysis-GC/MS and we are ready to start the analysis.⏳🥼🔎

Tomorrow the pyrograms will be ready to start data treatment and discover what plastic polymers we can find in greywater 🤔

#costaction #priority #microplastics #pyrolysis ...

Hi everyone! Day 2️⃣ of Takeover!

For my STSM activities, I'm analyzing greywater from the sinks/showers of a hotel and laundry greywater to characterize the presence of microplastics and plastic additives. I started by preparing the greywater samples at ICRA. I filtered the greywater samples and now I am analyzing the filters at Pisa.

My first activity here at DCCI was to do a preliminary screening of the greywater sample filters using an optical microscope. 🔬

Take a look how many #microfibers I found in the samples!

#cost #priority #microplastics ...

Hi everyone!
Today is my last day of the takeover and one week away from leaving the VITO and Mol city.

First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to Milica Velimirovic who hosted me with the warmest way and supported me during this period, while my thanks to Javier Delgado Gallardo for our fruitful collaboration and guidance couldn’t be omitted. Many thanks also to Xiaoyu Zhang, Matthias Vandermeiren, Carlos Adelantado Sánchez and Nicole De Bruker (all presented in the first two photos) for their valuable help, and of course to all the members of GOAL team, MAN building at VITO, for the excellent hospitality & assistance. Last but not least, I acknowledge the PRIORITY Cost Action for this unique experience that I had the chance to have.

*I couldn’t skip the photos I captured during my stay at Mol, enjoying 🌿🦆🌾

Good luck to all!🍀

#priority #cost #costactions #VITO #AUTh #microplastics #nanoplastics #environmental #analysis #science ...

🕗 “Are you ready for pyrolysis?”
 
Hello all,
Today is the turn of the pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Pyr-GC/MS) analysis. For those who are not familiar with, Pyr-GC/MS constitutes a powerful tool for the analysis of MPs since it can deliver valuable information about the composition and sources of these pollutants in the 🌍.
 
 
▫️How does it work? This coupled technique involves heating the sample to high temperatures in an inert atmosphere, causing the MPs’ thermally-induced degradation into smaller molecules. The formed vapors are then separated by GC and analyzed by MS, allowing the identification and quantification of the various components present in the sample, through polymer-based m/z libraries and the available literature.

◽️And what about the sample prep? We just weigh a very small amount of our sample, add it in appropriate cups and insert them onto the instrument.
 
In our case, we’ve tried to reach the aspect of weathering by two sites: the 1️⃣st including the investigation of the polymers’ physicochemical properties after aging through the identification of newly formed products, and the 2️⃣nd involving the examination of the nature of the plastic leachates being present in the water after weathering. 
 
Stay tuned for my tomorrow’s last take-over day!

#priority #cost #costactions #VITO #AUTh #microplastics #nanoplastics #environmental #analysis #science ...

Hi there,
It’s @ninamaria_ainali again.

Wednesday’s update:
📚As all of us more or less know, MPs/NPs are formed, among others, after the degradation of single-use plastic products, by UV light exposure ☀️ and/or mechanical stresses. There is also the potential for particles to be released directly, without the need for material fragmentation, as research has shown that materials (such as 😷) can have a significant amount of loosely attached plastic particles🫧.
 
During my STSM journey, we’ll try to investigate what is actually released from single-use plastics into the water, after extensive weathering conditions. The plastic leachates are examined with several characterization and analytical techniques.
 
🔬Today is the turn of dynamic light scattering (DLS) measurements. DLS has been extensively used for the measurement of NPs and of particles within the size range 800 nm-5 µm.

Herein, the several prepared aqueous samples containing plastic leachates were analyzed by DLS to examine the size of the released particles after weathering.

Are you interested on learning what’s next?

#priority #cost #costactions #VITO #AUTh #microplastics #nanoplastics #environmental #analysis #science ...

Hi everyone!

I’m Alexia again ( @b.lexia ). Today is my last day here in the Faculty of Technology Novi Sad (Serbia). We examined a lot of samples this week.

Here is the Fourier Transform Infrared Analyser (FTIR). As I said yesterday we can use it to determine the chemical composition of microplastics.

But how it’s working?
The FTIR instrument passing infrared radiation, over a range of different frequencies, through a sample and measuring the absorptions made by each type of bond in the compound. 🔬

#costaction #priority #microplastics ...

Hello everyone,

This is my last day of the takeover.

I am so grateful for the wonderful people I had the chance to work with, Prof. Raffealla Signorini and PhD student Veronica Zani, who made me have an unforgettable experience here.

I had the opportunity to visit some places here in Padua, so I would like to show you a little bit of what this beautiful city full of history and culture has to offer.

Palazzo del Bo, the historic headquarters of the University of Padua since 1493. This is the location where Galileo Galilei taught for 18 years (1592-1610) having his lessons in the Great Hall where you can also find the Galileo’s podium which was set up by his students. Palazzo Bo also houses the oldest permanent anatomy theatre in the world.

Palazzo della Ragione - the ancient seat of the city courts of Padua, is one of the largest suspended courtrooms in Europe.

La Specola Museum – Astronomical Observatory of Padua

The Padua Botanical Garden is the world’s oldest university garden of its kind. Here you can find the Goethe’s Palm that inspired the German poet Goethe to write the theories on nature in his Metamorphosis of Plants.

Caffè Pedrocchi, one of the most important European cafés and one of the few survivors among the ancient Italian cafés, stands right in the very central square.

#cost #costaction #priority #padua ...

Hi there, it's me @ioana.marica

For my final activity proposed for this STSM, today I used another Raman equipment to perform SERS analyses on commercial homogeneous dispersion nanoplastics.

I prepared a diluted suspension of polystyrene nanoparticles and then a small droplet of the suspension was deposited on a substrate. After drying, the substrate was placed under the microscope to be optically scanned followed by the acquisition of Raman spectra. We have successfully acquired the Raman signal of polystyrene nanoparticles dispersed on the substrates. Even so, more experiments need to be done in the coming weeks.

#cost #eucost #priority #microplastics #nanoplastics ...

Hi there,
As Surface-enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) technique involves the use of noble-metal nanostructures, a first step of my STSM was the preparation of gold nanostructured substrates. Why are the nanostructured substrates so important for SERS analysis? By having the nanoplastics in contact with these substrates, the unique Raman signal of nanoplastics will be greatly enhanced, thus making much easier their detection.

After a lot of optimizations along the substrate fabrication process, we got it through and we obtained SERS substrates with very impressive optical properties due to their nanostructure, as you can see in the image.
As we succeeded in preparing the SERS substrates, we have functionalized them with a molecule that now allows us to study their potential as SERS substrates and we are ready for the next step.

So, tomorrow I will be able to characterize these substrates with a technique available here at the Department of Chemical Sciences, University of Padova. Do you want to find out what it’s all about?

#cost #costaction #priority #nanoplastics ...

Hi everyone! This is my last day of the takeover and also my last day at AAU. I spent great time here. Time flies when you are super busy.

Special thanks to Alvise Vianello, Laura Simon Sanchez and Claudia Lorenz for the last weeks of intense work and for the results we achieved. Many thanks also to the group of Urban Pollution, Division of Civil and Environmental Engineering of AAU BUILD for the amazing hospitality and to COST Action PRIORITY for this experience. ...

Hi! Let's see if we have microplastics. It’s time to scan with FPA-µFTIR Imaging to quantify and characterize polymers with automatic MP detection (siMPle).

We deposited sample aliquots on many windows and let the machine do the job. In 4 hours, we can get more than 3.2 millions of spectra combined in the IR image.

It’s a lot of data to process…likely we can use siMPle, a freeware software for automatic MP analysis. After hard work, we see some results. ...