Introduction
Analytical laboratories are constantly faced with balancing the costs and benefits of processing time,nconsumables cost, and the quality of collected data. When analyzing samples for microplastics, practitioners must consider laborious sample preparation, instrument data collection time, data analysis, and reporting time.
This study compares two membranes – a commonly used 20 µm gold-coated polycarbonate track etched (PCTE-Au) analytical filter, against a 20 µm gold-coated microporous silicon nitride (MPSN-Au) analytical filter made by SiMPore. Two concepts in specific are analyzed:
1 – Membrane “concentration factor”, in which a smaller active area concentrates particle loads, and thereby decreases analysis time – total analysis time is measured at a baseline through automated microscopy image acquisition.
2 – Material convenience via comparing the total manual handling time and reported handling ease.
Filters were compared by recording the time it took to handle/manipulate into and out of a vacuumfiltration apparatus, transferring to microscope, preparing an automated, coordinated-based microscopy process via µManager, and timing how long image acquisition takes. Additionally, triplicate experimental vacuum filtrations of 1L of clean water were conducted at -97.9 kPa for both filter types.
For each filter, a 25 mm clear-cast PDMS gasket with a 10 mm opening was utilized.