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Although plastic debris is constantly accumulating in aquatic environments, its impact is not yet fully understood. The establishment of a reliable, verified and standardised method to quantify the amount of plastic particles in the environment plays a key role to assess the consequences of plastic debris in aquatic ecosystems.

We significantly improved the classic density separation approach by launching the MicroPlastic Sediment Separator MPSS. It enables a reliable separation of different ecologically relevant size classes of plastic particles from sediment samples. A ZnCl2-solution (1.6-1.7 kg/L) or SODIUM POLYTUNGSTATE  (non-toxic alternative)  as separation fluid allows for an extraction of plastic particles ranging from large fragments to small microplastic particles (S-MPP, < 1 mm). Subsequent identification and quantification of the particles with a spatial resolution down to 1 μm can be performed using Raman Microspectroscopy.