Paper on "Automated analysis of microplastics based on vibrational spectroscopy: are we measuring the same metrics?" uses Microplastics Finder R2021a.

Are we measuring the same metrics? This question was raised by a team of researchers investigating automated analysis approaches for microplastics detection based on vibrational spectroscopy. In their study they compared different commercial analysis pipelines including Agilent Technologies 8700 LDIR + Clarity (QCL), WITec alpha300 R + ParticleScout (Raman), Photothermal Spectroscopy Corp mIRage + R (O-PTIR) and Bruker Lumos II + Purency Microplastics Finder R2021a (FTIR).

The different instruments and software packages were compared on their ability to identify polymer types and particle shapes. Further particle size detection limits and analysis speed were also determined.

This research not only shows the different strengths and weaknesses of each method but also to which extend results are comparable. It thus contributes to the better understanding of the problem of microplastics analysis and highlights the need for harmonisation and standardization of microplastics detection approaches.

Read the full paper here.