Microscopic plastic with a size of several μm to 5 mm or less is called microplastic. As a marine environmental problem that adversely affects coastlines and marine ecosystems, and consequently may potentially affect human health, microplastics have become a global issue in recent years. As early action is necessary to protect the global environment, various analytical devices are used to designate the sources of microplastics and study countermeasures.
 
The Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometer (FTIR) is generally used in qualitative analysis of plastics and is already utilized in surveys of the actual condition of discharges into rivers. However, since many actual microplastics are degraded in the environment, mainly by ultraviolet radiation, there may be no matches in analyses using a standard FTIR library.
 
This article introduces measurement of microplastics with a size on the order of several mm and use of the Shimadzu thermal-damaged plastics library to identify the samples.
 
Instrument: Shimadzu IRSpirit Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrophotometer (FTIR)