Application of FTIR methods for the determination of microplastics in soils

This bachelor thesis deals with the application of methods of infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) and thermal analysis (py-GC/MS) for the determination of microplastics in soil. Part of the thesis is an analysis of the current state of knowledge in the field of occurrence of microplastics in the terrestrial environment, their transmission in the soil and potential risks. The experimental part includes the preparation of samples of a mixture of model soil and PET of different concentrations and their analysis using ATR-FTIR and further isolation of PET from the samples by density separation and analysis by the py-GC/MS method. Based on the correlation coefficients, which show the ratio between the measured and actual values, it was considered that ATR-FTIR is more suitable for qualitative and quantitative analysis of microplastics in soil, and therefore this method was used to evaluate real soil samples with PET