There is a growing concern in the media for the increasing level of microplastics in the environment, but very little attention has been given to nanoplastics. This is largely attributed to the challenges associated with detection, characterisation and quantification of such small particles. In this study, a combination of Scanning Electron Microscopy, Raman Spectroscopy, NanoTracking Analysis and Dynamic Laser Scattering were successfully used to characterise and quantify the amount of nanoplastics produced from the fragmentation of polyethylene microplastics, extracted from a commercial facial scrub. Microplastics extracted were on average 400 nm in size (range 20 - 950 nm) but when subjected to low shear forces they fragment into nanoplastics with an average size of 25 nm. This subsequent disintegration and fragmentation of microplastics resulted in an increase in the concentration of the nanoplastics from 1.4 ×10<sup>13</sup> to 2.4 × 10<sup>14</sup> particles / g of scrub. These results thus suggest the existence of significant amount of nanoplastics in our environment.

Quantification and characterisation of nanoplastics generated from the fragmentation of microplastic in water

2019 Fall National Meeting

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