A novel print-and-release method to prepare microplastics using an office-grade laserjet printer; a low-cost solution for preliminary studies

Abstract

Microscopic plastic particles (microplastics) are widespread anthropogenic contaminants that are impacting aquatic ecosystems. Among the five most prevalent types of microplastics (polystyrene, polyamide, polyvinyl chloride, polyethylene, and polypropylene) in aquatic environments, the impact of polystyrene, polyethylene, and polypropylene has drawn more attention due to their high transportability. A lack of reliable inexpensive methods to accurately replicate the realistic microplastic samples extracted from environmental matrixes with the desired size and geometry is one of the main challenges in the design of experiments for systematic studies. In this work, a novel print-and-release technique to prepare colored microplastic (polystyrene) particles with a desired size and shape by using an office-grade laserjet printer is introduced. Microplastics ranging from 125 μm to 500 μm could be prepared with an average dimensional error of less than 5%. Their physical and chemical characteristics were obtained by SEM, FTIR, and XPS analyses.