Not so silver lining: Microplastics found in clouds could affect the weather

Low-altitude and denser clouds contained greater amounts of microplastics

23-Nov-2023 - From the depths of the seas to snow on mountains and even the air above cities, microplastics are turning up increasingly often. Now, in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology Letters, researchers have analyzed microplastics in clouds above mountains. They suggest that these tiny particles could ...

Microplastics in soil: Tomography with neutrons and X-rays shows where particles lay in soil

21-Nov-2023 - It really is a problem: Microplastics are everywhere. Now, an HZB and University Potsdam team developed a method that for the first time enables us to precisely localise microplastics in soil. The 3D tomography shows exactly the location of particles and the change in structure of the soil – ...

analytica 2024: Food analysis for sustainable nutrition

From PFAS to microplastics: focus on new harmful substances

16-Nov-2023 - From meat-free cold cuts to vegan salmon, the food market is changing. More and more consumers want to eat sustainably, but without sacrificing the taste of familiar products. “Modern analytical methods play a key role in the development of alternative foods, which is why analytica is ...

Tracing invisible particles

Automated analysis of microplastics

28-Jul-2023 - How high are concentrations of microplastics in the environment, in our drinking water or in foods? Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have developed an automated analysis method for the identification and quantification of particles. Microplastics are everywhere in the ...

First comparative study on automated analysis methods of large data sets in microplastics research

27-Mar-2023 - The lack of uniform analytical standards currently prevents the comparability of data on microplastics in the environment. Researchers from the University of Bayreuth and the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) have now, for the first time, compared two ...

Microplastics deposited on the seafloor triple in 20 years

First high-resolution reconstruction of microplastic pollution from sediments obtained in the northwestern Mediterranean Sea

28-Dec-2022 - The total amount of microplastics deposited on the bottom of oceans has tripled in the past two decades with a progression that corresponds to the type and volume of consumption of plastic products by society. This is the main conclusion of a study developed by the Institute of Environmental ...

Graffiti spray paints pollute soils with microplastics

Research team detects very high microplastic load from graffiti and paint in soils

02-Nov-2022 - Public awareness of microplastics as a problematic contaminant is growing. So far, increasing contamination by plastic particles has been detected mainly in bodies of water. But soil contamination by microplastics is also increasingly coming into focus. A team of researchers led by biology ...

Automated measurement technique for microplastic detection in water

Graduates of the University of Bayreuth receive EXIST start-up scholarship

17-Aug-2022 - Jens Pfeiffer and Valentin Meiler are funded by the EXIST Start-up Grant from the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection and the European Social Fund (ESF). The funding amount for "MYTRA - Measurement of Microplastics" is over 100,000 euros. The founding team, which so far consists ...

Microplastic pollution in the Northeast Atlantic: First long-term record from deep water layers of the open ocean

The most common plastic materials were polyethylene and PVC

06-Jul-2022 - Scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde (IOW) for the first time analysed a long-term sample series on microplastic pollution in the Northeast Atlantic from 2000 m water depth with respect to number, size, mass, material and possible origin of the particles. ...