Microplastics are small plastic particles the size of less than 5 millimeters from cosmetics or results of abrasion anddecomposition of plastic waste. The tremendous marine pollution by plastic particles and fibers and the increasingpresence in the human environment from drinking water reservoirs to waste water demands for an environmentalmanagement and effective detection methods. The uptake of microplastics by living organisms may cause injuries of thegastrointestinal tract, trigger inflammation or cause cell toxicity by intrinsic particle properties or adsorbed pollutants.The urgent need for methods to identify microplastics in the environment, its sources of input and the risk of microplasticparticles is the objective of the research project MicroPlastiCarrier.The project develops new tools for the optical detection and identification of microplastic particles from wastewater by amultiwavelength approach. The multiple labelfree optical toolbox is based on digital holographic microscopy usingwavelengths from the visible to mid infrared. In order to monitor particle uptake minimally-invasively in livingorganisms and cellular specimens in a label-free manner, we applied high resolution optical coherence tomography(OCT) and multi-spectral digital holographic microscopy (DHM).In combination with microfluidics technologies as flow cytometry the project plans to identify particles based on sizeand their absorption and refraction index properties at several wavelengths. The technology should overcome thelimitations of state of the art FT-IR.
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