Application of analytical pyrolysis for the detection of plastics and microplastics in the environment

The issue of microplastics is becoming increasingly important every year and so is the need for finding solutions. Plastic fragments smaller than 5 mm have already been found all over the planet in all spheres of the environment. Among the crucial factors of resolving this issue are, for example, restrictions in the production and overuse of plastic materials, unification and improvement of the waste management system, prevention of unintended release of plastic waste into the environment, the study of possible toxic effects of microplastics on living organisms, and the development of separation and detection techniques for the precise detection and identification of microplastics and nanoplastics. In recent years, the combination of pyrolysis, gas chromatography, and mass spectrometry (Pyr-GC-MS) has proven to be a potentially suitable instrument for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of these plastic particles. This Master's thesis proves that the Pyr-GC-MS method can, above all, be sensitive and accurate enough for the detection of microplastics in real environmental samples, where the particles are present in very low concentrations. Due to the broad diversity of physical and chemical properties of polymers, it is highly difficult to develop a single analytical method for the whole range..