Apinya Sakanupongkul, Kalyanee Sirisinha, Rattaporn Saenmuangchin, and Atitaya Siripinyanond*

Single particle inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (SP-ICP-MS) was developed for the analysis of size and particle number concentration of microplastics in the range of >1 μm up to 6 μm. The method was employed to estimate the particle size of the model particles from laboratory synthesized polystyrene latex by which the particle sizes were analyzed by SEM. The sizes obtained from SP-ICP-MS were larger than the reference sizes (SEM), suggesting the necessity to remove excessive solvent before the analysis. Then, the sizes observed from SP-ICP-MS were in good agreement with the reference sizes, suggesting the ability of SP-ICP-MS to give reliable size analysis when the matrix was properly matched. Then, the SP-ICP-MS was applied to estimate size and particle number concentration of microplastics released from teabags and disposable face masks.

Thanks are due to the National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT) and Mahidol University under grant number N41A640159. The scholarship given to A.Sakanupongkul from the Science Achievement Scholarship of Thailand (SAST) scholarship given to A.Sakanupongkul and the support from Center of Excellence for Innovation in Chemistry (PERCH-CIC) and National Research Council of Thailand (N11A650144) are gratefully acknowledged. This work is related to the SDGs 6 (Clean water and sanitation).