TED-GC/MS, Thermal Extraction and –Desorption combined with Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry, a novel technique for the determination of microplastics in water

Analyzing environmental samples, including water, for microplastics is a challenging task. In many cases, microplastics must be identified and quantified in the presence of significant amounts of other organic and mineral matter.

Thermal analysis techniques combined with GC/MS are promising with regard to providing efficient identification and quantification via polymer marker fragments with only limited sample preparation effort.

Organic matter separated by filtration from water samples is pyrolyzed and resulting fragments identified using GC/MS. In order to compensate for sample inhomogeneity representative larger sample amounts are pyrolyzed in a TGA instrument (Thermogravimetric Analysis) coupled to a GC-MS system by means of an automated sampling system for TGA exhaust gas