Читать книгу Plastic and Microplastic in the Environment - Группа авторов - Страница 24

In most studies, visual sorting is the first step to separate MPs from samples before identification of the polymer type. Large MPs (> 1 mm) can be recognized by the naked eye (Anderson et al. 2017), while smaller particles are identified using dissection microscopes (Faure et al. 2015; Mani et al. 2015) or scanning electron microscopy (SEM) (Eriksen et al. 2013; Su et al. 2016). This step requires experienced researchers and good optical quality of the microscope. However, identification of all particles is difficult if they are smaller than a certain size, if they are unable to be distinguished visually or cannot be managed with forceps due to their minuteness. Thus, visual sorting is time‐consuming and easy misidentification or underestimation of MPs is possible. Recently, another visual identification method using fluorescence was applied to detect and quantify small MPs. In most studies, Nile Red (NR) was used and dissolved in different solvent solution such as acetone, chloroform, and n‐hexane (Crew et al. 2020; Tamminga et al. 2017). Suspected MPs are stained with the NR solution and analyzed with a fluorescence microscope. This technique is inexpensive, can utilize available instruments, and can be semi‐automated for large amounts of sample analysis.