In June 2024, researchers from Educons University visited the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany, on the Heligoland archipelago in the North Sea, where they were actively involved in the laboratory process of detecting microplastics that had been sampled from the field in the previous period.
The training was led by Dr Sebastian Primpke and his PhD student Fangzhu Wu so that Educons University researchers could better understand and combat the ubiquitous problem of plastic pollution. During the training, researchers had the opportunity to explore innovative techniques, dive into the environmental impact, and collaborate and connect strongly.
The event was attended by researchers from Educons University, including Asst. Prof. dr Vesna Vasić, Asst. Prof. dr Zorana Srećkov, and Asst. Galina Čurčić.
During the well-organised event, researchers from Educons University of Novi Sad, Serbia learnt from colleagues who are representatives of the consortium partners on the GREENLand project. The researchers spent the first part of the event focussing on comprehensive instrumental analysis courses, which covered ATR, Raman, and FTIR spectroscopy methods.
Raman spectroscopy is a spectroscopic technique typically used to determine vibrational modes of molecules, although rotational and other low-frequency modes of systems may also be observed. Raman spectroscopy is commonly used in chemistry to provide a structural fingerprint by which molecules can be identified.
In microplastic detection from soil samples, Raman spectroscopy is often used for its capabilities to detect and determine the polymer content of very small-sized particles, however, there is a concern for their integrity after being exposed to Raman’s laser. With an automatic focus on the z-plane, it is possible to define the lowest and highest point of particles extracted from the sample and instruct the spectroscope to scan each layer in between to obtain a full scan of the disc.
Furthermore, it is possible to automatically identify the borders of each individual particle, count them, measure them and assign their polymer type based on the spectrums gathered. However, a manual check-up of this information is needed as the quality of the scans and parameters given determines the trustworthiness of the results. Never the less, this still greatly improves the time spent on spectrum gathering and provides several tools and options for further processing of the data that was obtained.
In addition, the researchers dedicated the second part of the visit going thoroughly examining the intricacies of extracting microplastics from sediment samples, following a step-by-step process.
In the following article, you can get additional information about FTIR spectroscopy in the GREENLand project.