ISO/DIS 16094-2

Water quality — Analysis of microplastic in water — Part 2: Vibrational spectroscopy methods for waters with low content of suspended solids including drinking water

Scope

This document specifies a method for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of microparticles of plastic or elastomeric materials in water using a microscopy technique coupled with vibrational spectroscopy.
The aim is to generate reliable and comparable data on the potential presence of microplastics in clean waters with micro-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (μFTIR) and micro-Raman spectroscopy. For simplification, the addressed materials will be named "microplastics" in the document.

The method allows:
• Determination of the size distribution of microplastics (1 μm to 5 000 µm);
• Identification of the composition of microplastics by characterizing, the type of polymer (PE, PP, PET, PTFE, PS, PVC, PC, PMMA, elastomers …

The method is applicable to:
• Ultrapure water in accordance with ISO 3696;
• Water intended for human consumption (drinking water);
• Bottled water;
• Untreated groundwater.