TUM-ParticleTyper 2: automated quantitative analysis of (microplastic) particles and fibers down to 1 μ m by Raman microspectroscopy

Abstract

Accurate quantification of small microplastics in environmental and food samples is a prerequisite for studying their potential hazard. Knowledge of numbers, size distributions and polymer type for particles and fibers is particularly relevant in this respect. Raman microspectroscopy can identify particles down to 1 μ m in diameter. Here, a fully automated procedure for quantifying microplastics across the entire defined size range is presented as the core of the new software TUM-ParticleTyper 2. This software implements the theoretical approaches of random window sampling and on-the-fly confidence interval estimation during ongoing measurements. It also includes improvements to image processing and fiber recognition (when compared to the previous software TUM-ParticleTyper for analysis of particles/fibers > 10 μ m), and a new approach to adaptive de-agglomeration. Repeated measurements of internally produced secondary reference microplastics were evaluated to assess the precision of the whole procedure.