The Recovery of Microplastics from Rock Oysters Using Digestion Method

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

1 Department of Chemistry, Kulliyyah of Science, International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), Kuantan Campus, Kuantan, Pahang, MALAYSIA

2 Department of Marine Science, Kulliyyah of Science, International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), Kuantan Campus, Kuantan, Pahang, MALAYSIA

Abstract

The widespread deposition of microplastics (<5.0 mm) in the marine environment has appeared to be pervasive across the globe. It has led to the major attention of many researchers to study this problem. Despite the amount of work conducted to understand these infamous microplastics, there is still no standard procedure for microplastics extraction from marine organism samples. This study investigated three types of digestion treatments; (1) KOH, (2) KOH/H2O2, and (3) KOH/NaClO, followed by density separation using 50% KI to extract the spiked microplastics from the rock oyster. Each treatment was tested to study the digestion effectiveness of the organic soft tissue materials while preserving the microplastic particles. Aside from recovering the spiked microplastics, other small contaminants have been detected in each treatment. All the spiked microplastics and the contaminants obtained were analyzed using a microscope and FT-IR for characterization. From this study, it was observed that each treatment resulted in high microplastics recovery. Among the three treatments, using 10% KOH alone provided the highest digestion rate, but it required more time to digest the oyster soft tissue. The contaminants detected in the oyster suggested the possibility of microplastics accumulation in non-digestion organs through adherence.

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References

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Iranian Journal of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering
Volume 41, Issue 12 - Serial Number 122
December 2022
Pages 4087-4098

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