Teaching an Old Dog a New Trick: Detecting Nanoplastics in Water using Aerosol Metrology

JAMES RADNEY, Christopher Zangmeister, Kurt Benkstein, Berc Kalanyan, National Institute of Standards and Technology

     Abstract Number: 117
     Working Group: Aerosol Sources and Constituents of Emerging Importance and Their Impacts across Spatial Scales

Abstract
Microplastics (> 1 μm in diameter) are a contaminant of emerging importance due their exponentially growing environmental ubiquity. However, while they are a seemingly obvious next-level degradation product, nanoplastics (< 1 µm in diameter) have received considerably less attention. Because of their small size and mass, detection and separation of nanoplastics is challenging using classical methods, which are often limited to particles larger than 30 µm in diameter. Here we discuss the separation, sizing, counting and identification of nanoplastics released into hot water from food grade nylon bags and single use beverage cups. Particles were atomized from suspension using a Collision atomizer followed by size and mass classification by a differential mobility analyzer and aerosol particle mass analyzer, respectively. Additionally, particles were analyzed in situ using particle tracking analysis and ex situ by scanning electron microscopy, and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy of particles electrostatically deposited on Si substrates. In the case of single use beverage cups, we find that seven 300 mL hot beverage cups release enough sub-100 nm plastic nanoparticles for every cell in the human body at a size that is readily available for cellular uptake.