Approaches For Identifying And Characterizing Microplastics In Biosolids Using Density Separation And µFTIR Spectroscopy

<p>Wastewater biosolids are a direct source of microplastics to the terrestrial environment because they are often applied in agricultural settings to increase field and soil nutrients. At present, the research community is struggling to standardized analytical methods for addressing this emerging environmental concern. This research aims to address this lack of standardization by developing a protocol to extract, count, and identify the types of microplastics in biosolids collected from two wastewater treatment locations in a large urban city. Our approach utilizes a density separation and a Fenton digestion as main components to collect microplastics and to allow their analysis with µFTIR spectroscopy. Data analysis was achieved using an iterative comparison and cross-validation of two separate spectral libraries – a commercial library available with the instrumentation and Open Specy, an online and open-source library used more frequently in support of microplastic research</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science (M.S.)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Earth and Atmospheric Sciences

Year dc:date.available

2025

Author dc:creator

• Velasquez Polania, Nicole L

Contributors dc:contributor

• Brian Giebel
• Pengfei Zhang
• Steven Kidder

• MICROPLASTICS
• BIOSOLIDS
• WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT (WWTP)
• FTIR
• POLYMERS
• Environmental Chemistry

Repository record dc:identifier

https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cc_etds_theses/1197

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:academicworks.cuny.edu:cc_etds_theses-2344