Bossaer, M.

De Rijcke, M.

Declercq, A.

Devriese, L.I.

Everaert, G.

Janssen, C.R.

Khelifi, S.

Pirlet, H.

Vandegehuchte, M.

Vrielinck, H.

Declercq, Annelies

De Rijcke, Maarten

Devriese, Lisa

Bossaer, Mattias

Janssen, Colin

Pirlet, Hans

Khelifi, Samira

Vrielinck, Henk

Everaert, Gert

Vandegehuchte, Michiel

Ghent University Academic Bibliography

Let’s jump in the plastics pool : how to detect unnoticed small plastic particles in our North Sea?

Open Marine Archive

73 
Poster presentation Informative poster 
Let’s jump in the plastics pool: How to detect unnoticed small plastic 
particles in our North Sea?  
Declercq Annelies1, De Rijcke Maarten1, Devriese Lisa1, Bossaer Mattias1, Janssen Colin2, Pirlet 
Hans1, Khelifi Samira3, Vrielinck Henk3, Everaert Gert1 and Vandegehuchte Michiel1 
1  Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ), InnovOcean site, Wandelaarkaai 7, 8400 Oostende, Belgium 
E-mail: annelies.declercq@vliz.be  
2  Universiteit Gent: Laboratorium voor Milieutoxicologie en Aquatische Ecologie (UGent-
GhEnToxLab), Coupure Links 653, 9000 Gent, Belgium 
3  Universiteit Gent: Vakgroep Vaste-stofwetenschappen (UGent), Campus Sterre, Krijgslaan 281, 
S1, 9000 Gent, Belgium 
 
There is growing awareness about possible adverse environmental effects and human health 
risks created by microplastics in the marine environment. Although there is now a considerable 
body of literature on the presence of larger microplastic particles (> 50 µm), there is - due to 
limitations in sampling and detection method - little information on the quantities and types of 
small microplastic particles (< 50 µm) present in marine environments. Here, we developed a 
simple, high-speed, and low-cost digestion and staining method to detect and visualize 
microplastics in seawater samples. First, seawater containing several types of artificial 
microplastics was filtered and a subsequent on-filter digestion protocol was applied, using 
chemical agents that do not visually modify the tested polymers. Subsequently, the 
microplastics on the filters were stained using Nile Red as fluorescent dye (according to Maes et 
al. 2017). This dye adsorbed to the plastic particles present on the filter, making them 
fluorescent when exposed to green, blue or ultraviolet light, allowing detection and 
visualization of the microplastics using a fluorescence microscope. A cross-validation of this 
detection method was performed by analyzing the irradiated plastic particles with a scanning 
electron microscope coupled to an Energy-Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS) and with micro 
Fourier transform infrared (µFTIR) spectroscopy. The developed method will be applied to 
analyze small microplastic particles in North Sea water samples in a fast, reliable, and cost-
efficient way. This may contribute to a robust, operational monitoring method of microplastics 
to inform and guide policy makers. 
  
Reference 
- Maes T, Jessop R, Wellner N, Haupt K, Mayes AG (2017) A rapid-screening approach to detect 
and quantify microplastics based on fluorescent tagging with Nile Red. Sci Rep 7:44501. doi: 
10.1038/srep44501. 
 
Keywords: Microplastics; Visualization; Detection; Fluorescent microscopy; Scanning electron 
microscopy; µFTIR 
  


Let’s jump in the plastics pool: How to detect unnoticed small plastic particles in our North Sea?

http://www.vliz.be/imisdocs/publications/325052.pdf

Let’s jump in the plastics pool: How to detect unnoticed small plastic particles in our North Sea?

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