Chemistry Commons^™

Labeling Microplastics With Fluorescent Dyes For Detection, Recovery, And Degradation Experiments, Zhiqiang Gao, Kendall Wontor, James V. Cizdziel

Faculty and Student Publications

Staining microplastics (MPs) for fluorescence detection has been widely applied in MP analyses. However, there is a lack of standardized staining procedures and conditions, with different researchers using different dye concentrations, solvents, incubation times, and staining temperatures. Moreover, with the limited types and morphologies of commercially available MPs, a simple and optimized approach to making fluorescent MPs is needed. In this study, 4 different textile dyes, along with Nile red dye for comparison, are used to stain 17 different polymers under various conditions to optimize the staining procedure. The MPs included both virgin and naturally weathered polymers with different sizes …