Microplastics Detection Using Pyrolysis-GC/MS-Based Methods

Abstract

By now the polymeric nature of microparticles has to be demonstrated before their classification as microplastics. Pyrolysis coupled to gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS) has been used for years to characterize polymers. Thanks to three distinct steps, destructuring, separation, and identification, this chapter explains how this technique allows the analyst to ascertain the polymeric composition of different plastic materials and much more. Far from being used as much as vibrational spectroscopy methods for the study of microplastics, Py-GC/ MS nevertheless has advantages which will be presented in this chapter, through the presentation of the contributions of this technique in terms of identification and quantification of microplastics. All of the studies presented here allow to outline some good laboratory practices relative to this technique. The last part of this chapter is dedicated to the future of microplastics analysis by Py-GC/MS, including the need of method normalization and the contribution of this technology for the research of nanoplastics and additives.