Identification of Micro Plastics Using Advanced Raman technologies (IMPART)

海洋中的塑料废物正在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型浮游生物的碳固存机制而导致气候变化。2015年，全球生产了3.81亿吨塑料，其中只有20%被回收。制造泄漏、轮胎磨损和塑料废物的紫外线分解导致微塑料进入全球水系统-据估计，仅一立方米的海水中就可以发现830万个微塑料颗粒。目前，人们越来越担心这些微塑料正在进入更广泛的食物链，可能对健康造成深远的影响。新冠肺炎疫情加剧了这一问题，全球塑料、一次性个人防护设备（PPE）的使用大幅增加。仅在英国，自疫情开始以来，就订购了280亿件个人防护设备;这一规模在全球范围内复制，沿着其他塑料的使用增加。例如，自疫情爆发以来，亚克力板的产量增加了300%。确保水道和水源继续没有这种废物正在成为一个非常紧迫的问题，而新冠肺炎疫情的爆发显然加剧了这一问题。在近中期内，这种情况可能会继续下去，因为病毒正在被抗击，需要更多的个人防护设备。为了解决这一问题，必须查明污染的传播途径，并最终查明其来源。这需要测试制度，不仅可以定位微塑料，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受到限制，要么要求将样品送到场外实验室进行分析，要么仅通过目视检查完成。淡水网络（河流、水库和污水处理厂）是主要微塑料进入海洋环境的运输通道，因此在应用于海洋采样之前，将利用这一创新解决方案进行现场分析。IMPART将开发一种新型手持式拉曼浸入式探头，可以识别和检测微塑料的存在。诸如拉曼光谱的光学方法为快速、可靠、高灵敏度的原位测量提供了机会。典型地，这种类型的仪器受到光谱仪和探针系统的有限的集光率或光通量特性的限制。在这个项目中，我们将开发一种新的便携式高光学扩展量拉曼仪器和浸入式探头，利用空间外差光谱仪的特性，这种光谱仪设计的主要优点是，对于给定的分辨率，它提供了100倍的光学扩展量可以实现与传统的色散光谱仪，不像传统的傅里叶变换光谱仪，它没有移动部件。这些规格使光谱仪能够在具有挑战性的环境中进行可靠的现场使用，需要快速的测量周转。IS-Instruments Ltd是一家创新的SME，是将光学仪器从概念到市场的专家，用于在具有挑战性的环境中部署和操作。

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.