Abstract Microplastic particles are currently detected in almost all environmental compartments. The results of detection vary widely, as a multitude of very different methods are used with very different requirements for analytical validity. In this work four thermoanalytical methods are compared and their advantages and limitations are discussed. One of them is thermal extraction-desorption gas chromatography mass spectrometry (TED-GC/MS), an analysis method for microplastic detection that has become established in recent years. In addition, thermogravimetric analysis coupled with Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (TGA-FTIR) and mass spectrometry (TGA-MS) were applied, two methods that are less common in this field but are still used in other research areas. Finally, microscale combustion calorimeter (MCC) was applied, a method not yet used for microplastic detection. The presented results are taken from a recently published interlaboratory comparison test by Becker et al. (2020). Here a reference material consisting of suspended matter and specified added polymer masses was examined, and only the results of the recoveries were presented. In the present paper, however, the results for the individual polymers are discussed in detail and individual perspectives for all instruments are shown. It was found that TED-GC/MS is the most suitable method for samples with unknown matrix and unknown, variable kinds and contents of microplastic. TGA-FTIR is a robust method for samples with known matrix and with defined kinds of microplastic. TGA-MS may offer a solution for the detection of PVC particles in the future. MCC can be used as a very fast and simple screening method for the identification of a potential microplastic load of standard polymers in unknown samples.

中文翻译：

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评估配备逸出气体分析的热分析方法，用于检测环境样品中的微塑料

摘要 目前，几乎在所有环境隔间中都检测到微塑料颗粒。检测结果差异很大，因为使用了多种非常不同的方法，对分析有效性的要求也非常不同。在这项工作中，四种热分析方法进行了比较，并讨论了它们的优点和局限性。其中之一是热萃取-解吸气相色谱质谱法 (TED-GC/MS)，这是近年来建立的一种微塑料检测分析方法。此外，还应用了热重分析结合傅里叶变换红外光谱 (TGA-FTIR) 和质谱 (TGA-MS)，这两种方法在该领域不太常见，但仍在其他研究领域使用。最后，应用微型燃烧量热仪（MCC），一种尚未用于微塑料检测的方法。所呈现的结果取自贝克尔等人最近发表的实验室间比较测试。(2020)。此处检查了由悬浮物和特定添加的聚合物质量组成的参考材料，仅提供了回收率结果。然而，在本文中，详细讨论了各种聚合物的结果，并显示了所有仪器的个别观点。结果表明，TED-GC/MS 是最适合基质未知和微塑料种类和含量未知、可变的样品的方法。TGA-FTIR 是一种适用于具有已知基质和确定种类微塑料的样品的可靠方法。TGA-MS 可能为未来 PVC 颗粒的检测提供解决方案。