New Device Could Let Anyone Check For Microplastics In Water

With the growing concern about microplastic pollution in drinking water, many are worried about something that, until now, is difficult to check for themselves. However, that may soon change if a new prototype device goes into production.

What Are Microplastics?

By definition, microplastics are plastic fragments smaller than 5 millimeters in diameter.

Microplastics are present in bodies of water globally, originating from sources like breaking down plastic waste, plastic microbeads in products like toothpaste, fibers from synthetic clothing, and rubber particles from car tires.

Researchers are studying the health effects of ingesting microplastics, but they know that harmful bacteria often cling to these particles, which we should avoid ingesting.

Currently, the methods to count the number of microplastics in water samples require expensive lab-based equipment operated by trained technicians. Dr. Tianxi Yang and his team at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Canada set out to change that.

A New Device for Detecting Microplastics

The result is a small 3D-printed box that contains a wireless digital microscope, a green LED, and a device known as an excitation filter. Machine learning-based software installed on a connected smartphone analyzes the images transmitted by the microscope.

How the Device Works

You need only a tiny amount of water (less than a drop). You then add a solution of tannic acid, zirconium atoms, and rhodamine B to it. When you expose this mixture to green light from the LED, all the microplastics in it fluoresce, making them highly visible.

The smartphone software counts the number of fluorescing pixels in the microscope images, allowing it to determine both the size and quantity of particles in the sample. In less than 20 minutes, the device provides a result that is easy for both scientists and laypeople to interpret.

In a test of the technology, the team used the device to analyze distilled water that they had boiled, poured into polystyrene cups, and left to cool for 30 minutes. They found that each cup released “hundreds of millions” of nanometer-sized particles into the 50 ml of water.

Expanding the Detection Capabilities

Although the tests specifically targeted polystyrene particles, the scientists have adjusted the software to detect other types of plastics, such as polyethylene and polypropylene. They recently published a paper on the study in the journal ACS Sensors.

And if you’re wondering what a user would do if a commercial version of the device showed that their water is full of microplastics… well, last year, UBC announced the development of a plant-based filter that removes almost 100% of these particles from water.

Read the Original Article on: New Atlas

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