Identification of Micro Plastics Using Advanced Raman technologies (IMPART)

海洋中的塑料垃圾正成为一个日益严重的问题；破坏沿海和深海环境，对敏感的海洋生态系统和野生动物产生负面影响，甚至通过威胁海洋微微浮游生物的碳固存机制而加剧气候变化。2015年，中国生产了3.81亿吨塑料，其中只有20%被回收利用。制造泄漏、轮胎磨损和塑料垃圾的紫外线分解导致微塑料进入全球水系统-据估计，仅在一立方米的海水中就可以发现830万个微塑料颗粒。人们越来越担心这些微塑料正在进入更广泛的食物链，可能会对健康产生深远的影响。新冠肺炎疫情加剧了这一问题，全球塑料、一次性个人防护用品的使用量大幅增加。仅在英国，自疫情开始以来，已订购了280亿件个人防护用品；这种规模在全球范围内复制，同时增加了其他塑料的使用。例如，自疫情爆发以来，丙烯酸酯板材的产量增长了300%。确保水道和水源继续没有这种废物正成为一个非常紧迫的问题，而新冠肺炎的爆发显然放大了这一问题。随着病毒的抗击和需要更多的个人防护装备，这种情况很可能在中短期内持续下去。为了解决这一问题，必须确定污染的运输途径，并最终确定其来源。这就要求测试系统不仅可以定位微塑料，而且还可以识别其化学成分，最好是实时和现场。目前的测量系统在识别和量化能力方面有限，要么要求将样品送到非现场实验室进行分析，要么仅通过目测完成。淡水网络(河流、水库和处理厂)是初级微塑料进入海洋环境的运输途径，因此在应用于海洋采样之前，将针对这一创新解决方案进行现场分析。IMPART将开发一种新的手持式拉曼浸泡探头，可以识别和表征微塑料的存在。拉曼光谱等光学方法为快速、可靠、高灵敏度的原位测量提供了机会。通常，这种类型的仪器受到光谱仪和探头系统有限的张量或光学吞吐量特性的限制。在这个项目中，我们将利用空间外差光谱仪的特性，开发一种新型的便携式高张量拉曼仪器和浸没探头。这种光谱仪设计的关键优势是，在给定的分辨率下，它可以提供比传统色散光谱仪高100倍的张量，而且与传统的傅里叶变换光谱仪不同，它没有运动部件。这些规格使光谱仪可用于需要在具有挑战性的环境中快速测量的现场应用。创新的中小型企业IS-Instruments Ltd是将光学仪器从概念带入市场的专家，以便在具有挑战性的环境中进行部署和操作。

Plastic waste in the ocean is becoming an increasingly serious problem; damaging coastal and deep-sea environments, negatively impacting sensitive marine ecosystems and wildlife and even contributing towards climate change by threatening carbon sequestration mechanisms of ocean based picoplankton. In 2015, 381 million tonnes of plastic were produced with only 20% recycled. Manufacturing spills, tyre wear and UV breakdown of plastic waste result in microplastics entering global water systems - it has been estimated that 8.3 million microplastic particles can be found in just one cubic metre of ocean water. There is now increasing concern that these microplastics are finding their way into the wider food chain, with potential for far-reaching health consequences.The Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated the problem with huge increases in the use of plastic, disposable, personal protective equipment (PPE) globally. In the UK alone, 28-billion items of PPE have been ordered since the start of the pandemic; a scale replicated globally, along with increased use of other plastics. Acrylic sheet production, for example is up 300% since the start of the outbreak.Ensuring that waterways and water sources continue to be free of this waste is becoming a significantly urgent problem which has been clearly amplified by the Covid-19 outbreak. This is likely to continue in the near-to-medium term as the virus is combated and more PPE is required. In order to tackle this issue, pollution transport pathways and ultimately their sources must be identified. This requires testing regimes that not only can locate microplastics but also identify their chemical composition, ideally in real-time and on-site. Current measurement systems are limited in their identification and quantification capabilities, either demanding samples be sent to an off-site laboratory for analysis or are completed simply by visual inspection. The fresh-water network (rivers, reservoirs and treatment works) are the transport pathway for primary microplastics entering the marine environment so will be targeted for in-situ analysis with this innovative solution, before application to marine sampling.IMPART will develop a new handheld, Raman immersion probe that can both identity and characterise the presence of microplastics. Optical methods such as Raman spectroscopy present the opportunity for fast, reliable, high sensitivity in-situ measurement. Typically instrumentation of this type is constrained by the limited etendue or optical throughput characteristics of the spectrometer and probe system. In this project we will develop a new portable high-etendue Raman instrument and immersion probe, exploiting the properties of spatial heterodyne spectrometers.The key advantage of this spectrometer design is that, for a given resolution, it provides 100-times increase in the etendue than can be achieved with a traditional dispersive spectrometer and, unlike a traditional Fourier transform spectrometer, it has no moving parts. These specifications lend the spectrometer to robust on-site use where rapid measurement turnaround in a challenging environment is required.IS-Instruments Ltd, an innovative SME are experts in taking optical instrumentation from concept through to market for deployment and operation in challenging environments.