- Sampling and analysis of airborne micro- and nanoplastics
- Atmospheric microplastics and nanoplastics and their interactions with different environmental compartments (oceans, land and the cryosphere)
- Contributions of soils, roads and other terrestrial sources to the atmospheric micro- and nanoplastic burden
- Ocean-atmosphere exchange of microplastics and nanoplastics
- Microplastics and nanoplastics in the cryosphere
- Interactions between micro- and nanoplastics and other sources of aerosol
- Interactions between microplastics, nanoplastics, radiation and clouds
- Airborne microplastics as vectors for chemical and pathogen transport
- Indoor, outdoor, urban, rural and remote microplastics and nanoplastics (measurements, observations, modelling)
- Toxicological and exposure studies related to airborne micro- and nanoplastics
- Degradation of macro-, micro- and nanoplastics in real and simulated atmospheric conditions
- Airborne sources and sinks of micro- and nanoplastics (measurements and modelling)
Microplastics, defined as synthetic polymers from 1 μm to 5 mm, are manufactured for specific purposes or created from the fragmentation and degradation of larger plastic items in the environment. Microplastics are transported by wind and water, can traverse long distances in the atmosphere, and pose ecological and potential human-health risks by acting as vectors for additives and pollutants. Despite increasing attention, their atmospheric distribution remains poorly understood. Although observations are becoming more abundant, estimates of their emissions to the atmosphere differ by orders of magnitude. In this work, we compile a global dataset of atmospheric microplastic measurements and compare it with size-aligned simulations based on the Lagrangian particle dispersion model FLEXPART. The simulations overestimate measured global median concentrations up to four orders of magnitude. Median concentrations above land are 27 times higher than over the ocean (0.08 versus 0.003 particles m-3). Using a simple scaling approach, we infer that the oceanic source emits fewer particles than terrestrial sources. We estimate annual emissions of 6.1×1017 (1.3×1017-1.1×1018) particles yr-1 from land and 2.6×1016 (2.7×1015-5.0×1016) particles yr-1 from the ocean. Land sources dominate particle counts but not mass, highlighting the need to better constrain the emission size distributions.
How to cite: Evangelou, I., Bucci, S., and Stohl, A.: A global atmospheric microplastics dataset and model-assisted insights into their atmospheric emissions, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-5122, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-5122, 2026.
Atmospheric transport is central to the global cycling of microplastics, yet model-based estimates of emissions, concentration, and deposition remain highly uncertain. A critical challenge arises from the mismatch between models, which simulate microplastics as mass-based tracers, and observations, which are typically reported as particle counts and are often limited by microscopy techniques that fail to detect the smallest modeled particles.
To address this, we extend previous work1 and use the GEOS-Chem global chemical transport model to simulate atmospheric microplastic emissions, transport, and removal. We develop a physically consistent framework to reconcile simulations with observations by: (i) deriving a size distribution for atmospheric microplastics from literature data; (ii) extrapolating observations to the model’s size range, and (iii) converting particle counts to mass using literature-based assumptions about shape and density.
Our results show that this framework reduces simulated global emissions by a factor of 20, with the contribution of marine sources decreasing from over 50% to just 20% of total emissions. The revised global emission estimate (~15 Gg/year) aligns with recent studies suggesting lower emissions than previously thought.2,3 Our findings highlight the need for standardized experimental methods, reporting of particle size distributions, and consistent frameworks to compare modeled and observed microplastics.
References:
1. Fu, Y. et al. Modeling atmospheric microplastic cycle by GEOS-Chem: An optimized estimation by a global dataset suggests likely 50 times lower ocean emissions. One Earth 6, 705–714 (2023).
2. Bucci, S., Richon, C. & Bakels, L. Exploring the Transport Path of Oceanic Microplastics in the Atmosphere. Environ. Sci. Technol. 58, 14338–14347 (2024).
3. Yang, S., Brasseur, G., Walters, S., Lichtig, P. & Li, C. W. Y. Global atmospheric distribution of microplastics with evidence of low oceanic emissions. Npj Clim. Atmospheric Sci. 8, 1–10 (2025).
How to cite: Hough, I., Dobiasova, N., Segur, T., Voisin, D., Price, R., Sonke, J., Thomas, J. L., and Angot, H.: Reconciling modeled and observed atmospheric microplastics: a physically consistent framework reduces global emission estimates by a factor of 20, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-3432, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-3432, 2026.
Nano-/micro-plastics (NMPs) are ubiquitous anthropogenic pollutants in the atmosphere. However, their impact on cloud microphysical properties and climate dynamics remains poorly understood. Here, we show that several types of NMPs can effectively trigger heterogeneous ice nucleation under mixed-phase cloud conditions. At −20 °C, the number of nucleation sites per unit mass of NMPs varied by more than one order of magnitude and is higher than that of marine organic aerosol, but lower than that of K-feldspar. Combining the developed ice nucleation parameterization with the global concentrations of NMPs, we found that the NMPs are an important source of ice-nucleating particles (INPs) globally, particularly in urban areas with high population density and extensive road networks, as well as in cities with concentrated textile industries, where tire wear particles and polyester exhibit relatively high ice-nucleation efficiency. By serving as INPs, NMPs can modulate the cloud microphysical properties and substantially affect longwave and shortwave cloud forcing. With the expected increase of NMP emissions in the future, we believe that NMPs may play a crucial role in influencing cloud microphysical properties and the broader climate system.
How to cite: Chen, S., Chen, J., McErlich, C., Chan, A., Wex, H., Kanji, Z., Revell, L., Zhang, Y., Zhao, X., and Gong, X.: Nano-/micro-plastics could be an important source of ice-nucleating particles, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-3800, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-3800, 2026.
Studies reporting environmental MP concentrations typically do so for variable MP size ranges, depending on sampling, processing and analytical detection methods. However, microplastic (MP) number concentrations in the environment increase exponentially with decreasing particle size. This leads to difficulties in intercomparison and extrapolation of studies, which is critical for data reviews, plastic dispersion modelling, and environmental and human health risk assessment. To address these challenges, we collected 90 MP particle size distributions (PSDs) from 55 published studies that observed environmental MP in the atmosphere, ocean surface, and deep ocean. The data are compiled in the online MPsizeBase open access database (https://zenodo.org/records/17380284). Improving from published methods (Kooi et al., 2021; Kooi and Koelmans, 2019), a new MP size-alignment framework based on the power law distribution is proposed and validated (Segur et al., 2026). This framework is then applied to the MPsizeBase data to extrapolate observed MP number and mass concentrations to the full MP size range (1 to 5000 µm, noted MP1-5000µm), or any other sub-size range. Our findings reveal distinct fragmentation patterns: power law slopes for fragments (−2.76 ± 0.62) are significantly steeper than for fibers (−1.84 ± 0.38), underscoring differences in their environmental behavior. Strikingly, reported airborne MP concentrations (0.8–37 MP m⁻³) fall 35–130 times below extrapolated values (up to 4800 MP m⁻³ for fragments), with mass concentrations reaching 0.06–22 µg m⁻³. Similarly, atmospheric deposition fluxes (90–190 MP m⁻² d⁻¹) are 80–140 times lower than extrapolated estimates (up to 16,000 MP m⁻² d⁻¹), with mass deposition of 10–190 µg m⁻² d⁻¹. These disparities underscore a pressing need: standardized size extrapolation is essential to harmonize datasets, refine risk assessments, and disentangle true environmental trends from methodological biases.
References
Kooi, M. and Koelmans, A. A.: Simplifying Microplastic via Continuous Probability Distributions for Size, Shape, and Density, Environ. Sci. Technol. Lett., 6, 551–557, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.estlett.9b00379, 2019.
Kooi, M., Primpke, S., Mintenig, S. M., Lorenz, C., Gerdts, G., and Koelmans, A. A.: Characterizing the multidimensionality of microplastics across environmental compartments, Water Research, 202, 117429, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2021.117429, 2021.
Segur, T., Hough, I., Dobiasova, N., Voisin, D., Richon, C., Angot, H., Thomas, J. L., and Sonke, J. E.: Using the power law size distribution to extrapolate and compare microplastic number and mass concentrations in environmental media, https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8524083/v1, 8 January 2026.
How to cite: Segur, T., Hough, I., Dobiasova, N., Voisin, D., Richon, C., Angot, H., Thomas, J. L., and Sonke, J. E.: Using the power law size distribution to extrapolate and compare microplastic number and mass concentrations in environmental media, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-7277, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-7277, 2026.
Nanoplastic particles (NPPs) are increasingly recognized as an emerging class of atmospheric aerosol. However, their mixing state with inorganic and organic aerosol components remains poorly constrained, limiting our understanding of their atmospheric lifecycle and environmental fate. Conventional bulk aerosol measurements often obscure particle-to-particle chemical heterogeneity, complicating predictions of NPP transport, deposition, and cloud-relevant properties.
Here, we present an online mass spectrometric approach using an Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (AMS) to resolve the mixing state of NPPs in real time by combining event-trigger single-particle (ETSP) measurements with complementary bulk analysis. This approach extends recent AMS-based efforts for real-time NPP detection from bulk tracers to particle-resolved mixing-state constraints. Controlled laboratory experiments were conducted to simulate atmospheric mixing, in which polystyrene-NPP suspensions were atomized and mixed with representative inorganic and organic constituents, including ammonium nitrate, ammonium sulfate, sodium chloride, and succinic acid. Chemically resolved single-particle mass spectra were analyzed using unsupervised k-means clustering to separate externally mixed particle populations from internally mixed NPP–coating systems.
We identified distinct particle classes characterized by the co-occurrence of polymer fragments (e.g., styrene-related ions) with coating-specific ions (e.g., nitrate markers), enabling the direct differentiation of coated versus uncoated NPPs at the single-particle level. The derived mixing-state index (χ) varied systematically across coating types (ranging from 10% to 40%), indicating a transition from external to partial internal mixing under controlled conditions. Coated NPPs further exhibited distinct vaporization kinetics and temporal ion profiles relative to bare particles, reflecting particle-level interactions between polymer cores and inorganic or organic coatings and providing independent evidence for internal mixing that is not discernible from bulk-averaged spectra.
These results illustrate how the AMS can be effectively leveraged to quantitatively constrain the mixing state of NPPs. This work provides a methodological foundation for identifying polymeric particles within complex atmospheric aerosol matrices and for improving the representation of NPPs in atmospheric transport and lifecycle models, where mixing state is a key but largely unconstrained parameter.
How to cite: Kong, L., Lee, A., Chan, M. N., Castellanos, I. G., and Chan, A.: Laboratory Investigation of Nanoplastic Mixing States with Water-Soluble Coatings using Single-Particle Mass Spectrometry, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-12721, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-12721, 2026.
Despite growing concern regarding the wet deposition of atmospheric microplastics (MPs), the role of particle morphological complexity in controlling deposition efficiency and atmospheric transport remains insufficiently understood. Characterising MP geometry is essential for analysing aerodynamic behaviour and environmental interactions. This study presents the first quantitative assessment of the fractal dimension (FD) of microplastics deposited via rainfall in Central Europe. Over a 14‑month period, rainwater samples were collected from urban residential and traffic‑influenced areas in Wroclaw, Poland, using a passive sampler positioned 5 m above ground level. Advanced morphological characterisation was conducted using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), followed by vector‑based geometric analysis implemented in Python for particle classification and FD estimation. Mean MP abundances were 135 ± 89 particles L⁻¹ in the residential area and 168 ± 64 particles L⁻¹ in the traffic‑influenced area. Fibres dominated wet deposition and exhibited a narrow FD range (1.10 ± 0.15), indicating smooth, elongated geometries with low structural complexity. Fragments were observed less frequently and showed greater morphological variability; however, the analysis focuses primarily on fibres because they are more common. These findings demonstrate that fractal dimension provides a quantitative descriptor of microplastic morphological complexity and may serve as an indicator of aerodynamic behaviour and environmental fate in atmospheric systems.
How to cite: Rasheed, Z. and Bęcek, K.: Quantifying Morphological Complexity and Wet Deposition of Microplastics Abundance: A Case Study of Wroclaw, Poland, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-3707, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-3707, 2026.
When plastic waste is released into the environment, it undergoes weathering processes that lead to the formation of micro- and nanoplastics (MNPs). In recent years, the production mechanisms of secondary MNPs and their surface property changes during weathering have been widely studied. However, information on these fragmented particles remains limited compared to that on parent plastics, particularly with respect to quantitative assessments of particle generation. In this study, we investigated the changes in surface characteristics of flexible- (zipper bags made of low-density polyethylene) and rigid plastic products (single-use plastics made of polypropylene and polyethylene) after photooxidation, and quantified the generated MNPs to calculate their fragmentation rates. Neither plastic exhibited naturally formed surface cracks during exposure. However, both materials became progressively hardened after approximately 100 days of photooxidation and fragmented readily when subjected to external stress. The carbonyl index increased consistently with exposure duration, indicating ongoing photooxidative degradation. These results demonstrate that photooxidation induces polymer embrittlement, which substantially enhances susceptibility to fragmentation under subsequent mechanical abrasion. Generation of MNPs increased markedly when mechanical abrasion followed photooxidation. For flexible plastics, photooxidation alone did not show a clear exposure-dependent trend in particle generation, whereas the application of mechanical abrasion resulted in an estimated annual production of 9,573,818 particles/cm². For rigid plastics, annual particle production increased from 3,251,032 particles/cm² under photooxidation alone to 11,884,373 particles/cm² when combined with mechanical abrasion. This study demonstrates that photooxidation under atmospheric conditions progressively embrittles both flexible and rigid plastics, while subsequent mechanical abrasion accelerates MNP formation. These findings indicate that various weathering factors should be considered when quantifying secondary MNP generation and evaluating polymer-specific fragmentation behavior.
This research was supported by 'Land/Sea-based input and fate of microplastics in the marine environment' of Korea Institute of Marine Science & Technology Promotion (KIMST) funded by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, Republic of Korea (RS-2022-KS221604).
How to cite: Eo, S., Hong, S. H., Jang, Y., and Shim, W. J.: Quantification of Micro- and Nanoplastic Formation from Flexible- and Rigid Plastic Products under Photooxidation, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-8968, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-8968, 2026.
Nanoplastics (d ≤ 1 µm) are now recognized as ubiquitous contaminants throughout the Earth system. However, the mechanisms governing their transport and exchange between environmental compartments remain poorly constrained. Although elevated concentrations of nanoplastics have been reported in the North Atlantic Ocean, their dominant sources and transport pathways still require clarification. Marine nanoplastics may originate from the fragmentation and physicochemical degradation of larger plastic debris entering the ocean, but atmospheric transport and dry deposition represent an additional, potentially important pathway supplying nanoplastics to remote oceanic regions.
In this study, thermal desorption proton-transfer-reaction mass spectrometry (TD-PTR-MS), coupled with multicomponent multivariate standard addition (MMSA), was applied to quantify nanoplastics collected on aerosol filters during a research expedition across the North Atlantic Ocean from Vigo, Spain, to the Bahamas in November–December 2023. Nanoplastics from five major polymer classes—polystyrene (PS), polyethylene (PE), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polypropylene (PP), and polyethylene terephthalate (PET)—were detected in all air samples.
The results reveal substantially higher nanoplastic concentrations in air masses influenced by continental sources, with a pronounced decrease over the mid-Atlantic region. Concentrations ranged from 2.01 to 11.69 ng m⁻³ for PS, 7.12 to 59.71 ng m⁻³ for PVC, 9.94 to 50.91 ng m⁻³ for PE, 6.99 to 44.77 ng m⁻³ for PP, and 10.54 to 35.31 ng m⁻³ for PET.
These findings demonstrate that atmospheric transport plays a central role in controlling the distribution of nanoplastics over the North Atlantic and constitutes a major pathway linking terrestrial plastic emissions to the remote ocean.
How to cite: Omidikia, N., Niemann, H., Baker, A., and Holzinger, R.: Atmospheric contribution of nanoplastics to North Atlantic Ocean , EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-13639, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-13639, 2026.
Microplastics (MPs) are contaminants of global concern, and the atmosphere plays an important role in distributing these contaminants in the environment.1 We developed a tailored analytical chain – including sample collection, processing, and analysis based on optical microscopy and focal plane array μ-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FPA-μ-FTIR) – to quantify MPs (20-215 μm) in wet and dry atmospheric deposition.2 As part of the sampling setup, an on-site precipitation filtration device was developed to collect particulate wet deposition. An assessment of the total measurement uncertainty was performed, taking into account each individual step of the analytical chain. The resulting total expanded uncertainty was approximately 90% for determining MP numbers in a single wet or dry deposition sample. The conversion of MP numbers and associated size information into MP mass was estimated to generate an additional systematic error of 50%.
The analytical chain developed was used in a one-year monitoring study of atmospheric deposition of MPs in Switzerland. Specifically, we collected wet and dry deposition samples at five stations in Switzerland, including one urban, one suburban, two rural and one mountainous site, on a four-weekly basis. Based on the analysis of these samples, we determined the wet and dry deposition rates at each site both in terms of the number of MPs and MP mass. To put the determined deposition rates into context, we compared the deposition rates of MPs to those of total aerosols or dust as well as of tire wear particles, which were measured in parallel partner projects at the same or similar sites. The sizes and polymer types of MPs found in atmospheric deposition samples are reported. Finally, based on the MP mass deposition at the different sites and land-use statistics in Switzerland, we estimated the total annual deposition of MPs (including tire wear) across Switzerland, including an estimation of MP inputs from the atmosphere to soil and water. We found that the atmospheric deposition of tire wear in Switzerland is by mass about one order of magnitude higher than that of other synthetic polymers.
References
(1) Brahney, J.; Mahowald, N.; Prank, M.; Cornwell, G.; Klimont, Z.; Matsui, H.; Prather, K. A. Constraining the Atmospheric Limb of the Plastic Cycle. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 2021, 118 (16), e2020719118. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2020719118.
(2) Ashta, N. M.; Crosset-Perrotin, G.; Moraz, A.; Stoffel, J.; Schilt, U.; Ceglie, E.; Schoenenberger, D.; Philipp, M.; Bucheli, T. D.; Kaegi, R.; Hueglin, C. Atmospheric Deposition of Microplastics: A Sampling and Analytical Method Including the Associated Measurement Uncertainties. EGUsphere 2025, 2025, 1–30. https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-4786.
How to cite: Hueglin, C., Ashta, N. M., Crosset-Perrotin, G., Moraz, A., Philipp, M., Bucheli, T. D., Rahman, A. Md., and Kaegi, R.: Wet and dry atmospheric deposition of microplastics in Switzerland, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-17765, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-17765, 2026.
Understanding the atmospheric concentrations and properties of micro- and nano-plastics (MNPs) is essential to evaluate not only their sources, transport pathways and sinks, but also the effects they have on the environment, climate and human health. Especially as these effects are still largely unknown.
Here we present first results of atmospheric MNPs in PM2.5 (particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter < 2.5 μm) collected on filters at the Aerosol Observatory (35 m agl.) of the University of Vienna between 12.2024 and 12.2025. We aim to quantify the share of MNPs in PM2.5, their type and mass concentration over four seasons, and determine their sources (i.e. local versus long-range transport) by coupling observations with meteorological parameters, and FLEXPART Langrangian transport modelling.
In this study, daily PM2.5 filter samples are collected on quartz fibre filters using low volume filter sampler (SEQ47 50, Sven Leckel GmbH; 24 hr resolution) over a course of one year, and are subsequently analyzed with the thermal desorption – proton transfer reaction- mass spectrometer (TD-PTR-MS), for MNP mass concentration and chemical composition. The carbonaceous aerosol fractions (i.e. organic and elemental carbon) are analyzed using an offline thermo-optical method utilized by the Sunset Analyzer (Sunset Laboratory, Inc., USA) and follow the EUSAAR II protocol. Here we present the pilot results that focus on the analysis of the daily PM2.5 filter samples, as well as the preliminary results of the full-scale study that covers weekly pooled samples over the course of one year.
Preliminary results of the pilot study which covers ten daily PM2.5 filter samples with high (4.78-10.06 μg/m3) and low (~ 1 μg/m3) organic carbon loading show the presence of the following polymer types: polyethylene (PE), polyethylene telephtalate (PET), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS), polyvinyl chloride (PCV) and tire wear. High correlation (p<0.05) is found between the high organic carbon mass loading and the total mass of polymers detected.
These initial results highlight the presence of micro and nanoplastics in the urban air in Vienna and the importance of ensuring quantitative data to better understand their effects and transport pathways. Further, the results of this study are expected to complement the micro-FT-IR analysis of atmospheric particle deposition collected using wet and dry passive sampler at the Aerosol Observatory. Brought together, these measurements will provide a picture of micro- and nanoplastic occurrence across a size range from the nanoscale to hundreds of micrometres.
How to cite: Kupc, A., Materić, D., Drack, J., Bicserdy, V., Brown, H., Bucci, S., Stohl, A., and Weinzierl, B.: Quantifying Airborne Micro- and Nanoplastics at the Aerosol Observatory of the University of Vienna, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-20790, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-20790, 2026.
Urban road dust in Vienna, Austria’s capital, is a complex reservoir of microplastics (MPs) and anthropogenic magnetic particles, acting as a vector and source of environmental pollution. This study presents the first comprehensive analysis of road dust in Vienna using magnetic separation to investigate MPs and their association with magnetic properties. Seven urban sites were sampled, and dust was fractionated into 0.2–0.1 mm, 0.1–0.05 mm, and <0.05 mm particle sizes. Magnetic susceptibility (χ), frequency-dependent susceptibility (χfd%), anhysteretic remanent magnetization (χARM), and hysteresis parameters were measured to characterize magnetic minerals, while MPs were quantified and polymer types identified using laser direct infrared imaging (LDIR).
Results show that the finest fraction (<0.05 mm) is entirely magnetic, enriched in superparamagnetic and ferrimagnetic particles, whereas intermediate and coarse fractions contain both magnetic and non-magnetic components. Magnetic extracts contained the highest MPs concentrations, up to 25,423 particles/g, predominantly polypropylene (PP) and polyurethane (PU), indicating strong traffic-related sources such as brake dust and tire wear. Non-magnetic fractions were dominated by polyethylene (PE) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET), reflecting consumer waste contributions. Magnetic separation revealed hidden MPS patterns and enabled clear differentiation of polymer flows across particle sizes using Sankey diagrams.
Microplastic contamination was assessed with the Microplastic Contamination Factor (MCF) and Pollution Load Index (MPLI). The largest magnetic fractions showed dangerous to extremely dangerous MPLI levels (19.6–36.9), while medium fractions ranged from moderate to high contamination, and the finest fraction (<0.05 mm) was mostly uncontaminated except at one hotspot (27.4). Non-magnetic fractions exhibited moderate contamination primarily in the medium size fraction, confirming that traffic-related magnetic dust is the main contributor to urban MPs pollution. Hierarchical cluster analysis highlighted co-varying patterns among MPs, magnetic properties, and traffic intensity, indicating that local environmental factors influence MPs distribution beyond direct vehicular load.
These findings demonstrate that magnetic separation combined with granulometric analysis is a powerful tool for tracing microplastics in road dust and assessing their ecological significance. Fine, highly magnetic fractions concentrate MPSs from vehicular sources, representing the highest environmental risk due to potential atmospheric transport and runoff into soil and water systems. Coarser and non-magnetic fractions reflect additional inputs from infrastructure degradation and urban waste, emphasizing the multiplicity of sources. This study provides the first quantitative evidence linking magnetic properties of road dust with microplastic pollution in Vienna, Austria, and highlights the value of magnetic monitoring for rapid identification of high-risk dust fractions. Overall, this work establishes a baseline for urban MPs contamination in Vienna, showing strong size-dependent and magnetism-dependent patterns in road dust, and offers an effective methodology for future monitoring and risk assessment of microplastic pollution in urban environments.
This research was funded in whole by the National Science Centre, Poland under grant number 2021/43/D/ST10/00996.
How to cite: Kida, M., Dytłow, S. K., and Ziembowicz, S.: "Dust in the Fire" : First Investigation of Microplastics in Urban Road Dust via Magnetic Separation of Strong and Weak Components in Vienna, Austria, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-4046, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-4046, 2026.
Nanoplastics (NP) represent a global anthropogenic pollutant. Aerosolized NP enter the atmosphere and are eventually deposited in precipitation and surface waters, facilitating their entry into the food chain. Due to their small size, these particles can translocate within organisms and penetrate tissues and cells. While the health effects of environmental exposure levels remain poorly understood, the continuous increase in global concentrations is a growing concern. However, the characterization and analysis of aerosolized or deposited NP are analytically challenging.
In this study, we present a newly developed low-volume thermal desorption (TD) solution that is directly interfaced to a proton-transfer-reaction mass-spectrometer (PTR-TOF 6000X2, IONICON Analytik GmbH, Austria) for real-time detection of volatile organic compounds at lowermost concentrations. The TD unit allows for precise temporal temperature control up to 400°C. These temperatures are sufficient to efficiently thermolyze a large fraction of common NP into PTR-MS detectable volatile organic compounds (VOCs). In most cases, the released VOCs serve as specific markers for plastic identification: for instance, styrene for polystyrene (PS), methyl methacrylate for polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), and terephthalic acid for polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is identified via aromatic compounds such as benzene and naphthalene, while polyethylene (PE) exhibits a characteristic homologous series of alkenes and alkanes.
To validate this TD method, commercial monodisperse solutions of PS and PMMA were prepared with concentrations ranging from 0 to 60 ng in HPLC-grade water that was prefiltered through a 0.2 µm PTFE syringe filter. These samples were contained in precleaned headspace vials baked in a vacuum oven at 150°C and 10 mbar for >5 h to eliminate potential contaminants. After an evaporation step in a vacuum desiccator, the dry samples were heated in the TD unit and the thermolysis products were transferred in a controlled carrier gas (Air or N2) to the PTR-MS for quantitative analysis. Several replicates were prepared for each sample, along with laboratory blanks. Respective signals were integrated, and linear regressions were calculated. We achieved an R2 of 0.99 with a 3σ limit of detection (LOD) of 2.8 ng for PS, and an R2 of 0.98 with an LOD of 9.2 ng for PMMA.
We further present initial results from samples containing deposited NP and explore data analysis methods based on matrix factorization.
How to cite: Gutmann, R., Klinger, A., Müller, M., and Graus, M.: Thermal desorption and analysis of atmospheric nanoplastics via PTR-MS, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-10538, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-10538, 2026.
Microplastic Deposition Flux in Vienna
Atmospheric microplastic deposition presents an important pathway for plastic pollution in all ecosystems, yet quantitative data on atmospheric deposition fluxes in urban areas remain sparse. This study quantifies atmospheric microplastic deposition fluxes in Vienna using a combined observational and modelling approach. Specifically, atmospheric deposition is measured using a wet and dry passive sampler, allowing separate calculations of wet and dry deposition fluxes. Samples are collected daily over one-week campaigns during winter, spring, and autumn to enable the calculation of daily deposition fluxes and evaluation of seasonal variability. These samples are processed using a recently developed technique called oleo extraction and are then analysed via Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and microscopy (Micro-FT-IR) for particle identification and classification. Additionally, wind speed and direction are used in correlation analyses against deposition to assess the influence of local sources, whilst FLEXPART Lagrangian dispersion modelling is applied to evaluate the contribution of long-range atmospheric transport. Preliminary results from the pilot study and autumn sampling campaign have confirmed the identification of microplastic particles in the deposition fluxes (e.g. 40-50 µm fragments of polypropylene and polyvinyl chloride). Alongside this, the preliminary analysis shows in several samples a dominant fraction of dark particles below 10µm in diameter, occasionally detected by the Micro-FT-IR as rubber. Due to their size, morphology and colour, we suspect them to be tire wear particles. This would confirm the dominant role of traffic related sources on the microplastic particles detected in urban air. In contrast to previous studies, the analysis of the first collected samples shows a very low percentage of plastic microfibers. These findings highlight the importance of gaining microplastic deposition fluxes in urban environments, along with their dominant source processes.
How to cite: Brown, H., Corami, F., Rosso, B., Hofmann, T., Schachinger, M., Weinzierl, B., Kupc, A., Stohl, A., and Bucci, S.: Microplastic Deposition Flux in Vienna , EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-13584, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-13584, 2026.
Nanoplastics are increasingly recognized as an atmospheric contaminant with potential implications for exposure and climate-relevant aerosol processes, yet routine detection in real-world air remains limited by laborious sample preparation, contamination risk, and poor cross-study comparability. Here we present a practical analytical workflow built around a 3D-printed hollow laser desorption/ionization (HoLDI) target that adapts MALDI time-of-flight mass spectrometry for direct, solventless analysis of particles collected on common aerosol substrates. We integrate HoLDI-MS with size-resolved aerosol sampling (cascade impactor) and real-time particle sizing (SMPS/OPS), complemented by electron microscopy and EDS for morphology and elemental context. Indoor air measurements reveal polymer signatures consistent with polyethylene, polyethylene glycol, and polydimethylsiloxanes, with higher relative signal intensities in the microscale size fractions than in the submicron range, indicating a size-dependent distribution and/or detection efficiency in complex indoor matrices. In outdoor air, HoLDI-MS captures polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon patterns with relatively stronger signals in the nanoscale fractions, underscoring the capability to concurrently track plastic-related polymers and non-plastic organic aerosol constituents across size modes. HoLDI provides an accessible, rapidly deployable pathway toward harmonized, size-resolved chemical fingerprints of airborne nano/microplastics and co-occurring aerosols, helping close critical observational gaps needed for exposure assessment and atmospheric process studies.
How to cite: Wang, Z., Saadé, N., Panetta, R., and Ariya, P.: HoLDI mass spectrometry for rapid, solventless detection of airborne nanoplastics and co-occurring aerosol organics, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-13984, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-13984, 2026.
Synthetic textiles are estimated to be a major source of airborne microplastic pollution and microplastic fibres can be found in dry and wet atmospheric deposition in various sample media (air, water and sediment). While this is well known, there is little understanding of the contribution given by the direct emission from synthetic garments. Current literature often focusses more on microfibre emission during washing processes although the majority of microfibres in the environment are considered to originate from land-based sources. This project aims to determine the parameters that will help constrain the role of direct emission from synthetic clothing. This is achieved by performing shedding experiments on clothes under dry friction. Released fibres are collected and characterised in terms of number, length, width and morphology using digital microscopy. Since the majority of synthetic clothing consists of polyester mixed with other synthetic or natural materials, garments made of different polyester blends were tested and the relative amount of shed fibres was determined. The influence of garment age is also tested by performing shedding experiments on similar types of clothing with varying ages. Preliminary results show that the peak of the size distribution for the length of all emitted fibres lies at 310 ± 150 μm and the aspect ratio distribution peak is 16 ± 3. The findings of this project will provide important parameters directly relevant to assess whether the emitted particles are compatible with atmospheric transport processes and inhalation and will direct the designing for further targeted experiments.
How to cite: Haase, M. and Bucci, S.: From clothing to atmospheric fallout: characterising direct microplastic fibre emissions in air, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-14530, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-14530, 2026.
Microplastics (MPs), generally defined as plastic particles smaller than 5 mm in diameter, have emerged as an environmental concern owing to their persistence, mobility, and potential impacts on ecosystems and human health. Although previous studies have primarily focused on aquatic and terrestrial environments, airborne MPs (AMPs) have recently attracted increasing attention due to their potential health risks via inhalation. Nevertheless, research on AMPs remains limited. In this study, we characterized AMPs in size-segregated aerosols (PM2.5, PM2.5-10, and PM10<) in HCMC, Vietnam, based on observations conducted during the rainy season in 2023. To our knowledge, this is the first size-segregated AMP investigation in this region.
Aerosol samples were collected at the top of an 11-story office building at the University of Science, Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City in HCMC, Vietnam. A multi-nozzle cascade impact sampler was used to continuously collect PM2.5, PM2.5-10, and PM10< on Teflon-coated glass fiber filters over sampling periods of approximately 1 week at a flow rate of 20 L min-1. Following sample collection, the filters were subjected to a series of pretreatment steps, including extraction with ultrapure water, organic removal by hydrogen peroxide solution, and density separation by sodium iodide solution. After pretreatment, AMPs on the filters were identified by attenuated total reflection imaging with micro-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (Spectrum3/Spotlight 400; PerkinElmer). Detailed analytical procedures are described in our previous publication (Wang et al., Environ. Chem., Lett., 21, 3055-3062, 2023).
Here, we present the results for the rainy season. AMP concentrations ranged from 0.45 to 3.51 particles m-3 and differed significantly among samples. The polymer composition showed substantial temporal variability throughout the sampling period. Polyethylene (PE) was consistently the most abundant polymer, followed by polyethylene terephthalate (PET), poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), and polypropylene (PP). Other identified polymers included polyethylene/polypropylene copolymers (PE/PP), alkyd resin (alkyd), polyurethane (PU), polyester (PES), ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and acrylic polymers. Rubber-related polymers, such as ethylene-propylene-diene monomer rubber (EPDM) and isoprene rubber, were detected in mid-July and early August. These results may suggest the presence of multiple urban sources such as packaging and textile materials, paints and coatings, and traffic-related emissions, with increasing polymer diversity toward August.
Meteorological data and backward air trajectory analyses showed predominantly southwesterly to westerly airflow during the sampling period, with a mean wind speed of 1.61 m s-1. Air masses arriving from the southwest likely reflect the influence of marine air from coastal and ocean regions, whereas trajectories passing over the Mekong Delta may carry particles associated with agricultural activities and nearby industrial areas, including packaging and textile manufacturing. These results suggest that AMP concentrations in HCMC are influenced by both local urban emissions and regional-scale transport.
How to cite: Luong Ngoc Quynh, A., Fujii, Y., Niida, Y., Tran Hoang, M., Thao Nguyen, N., Thi Thanh Nhon, N., Tran, N., Thi Hien, T., Takenaka, N., and Okochi, H.: Observations of Size-Segregated Airborne Microplastics in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-16846, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-16846, 2026.
Phthalate exposure has been rampant with the growing use of these compounds in personal care and other plastic products. Phthalates have been associated with endocrine, neurological, and reproductive disorders resulting from their continuous release from plastic surfaces throughout their lifecycle. These endocrine disruptors are used in personal care products to increase their shelf life. This paper aims to identify phthalates and their concentration in three test materials, perfume, scented candles, and incense sticks, through a chamber experiment. This experiment aids in understanding phthalate emissions into air during the use of these materials in indoor environments. Sampling was performed using Tenax TA tubes, which were placed inside the glass chambers for 30 minutes while maintaining a positive flow rate using a mass flow controller and pump. The tubes capture gas-phase phthalates efficiently. The tubes were then further analyzed using TD-30 and GC/MS. Three phthalates, which were detected in the test materials, were dimethyl phthalate (DEP), dibutyl phthalate (DBP), and butyl benzyl phthalate (BBP). The phthalate concentration was found to be high in incense sticks, with DEP being the most prominent phthalate, followed by DBP. Scented candles had the high concentration of DBP, followed by BBP. A similar pattern was observed in perfumes. The high concentrations of these compounds detected in the test materials underscore growing concerns about the widespread use of phthalates in manufacturing of plastic products.
How to cite: Anshika, F. and Rappenglueck, B.: Investigation of phthalate emissions from incense stick, scented candle and perfume through a chamber experiment , EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-18616, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-18616, 2026.
Airborne microplastics (MPs) are increasingly recognized as emerging atmospheric contaminants with potential implications for environmental and human health. While their presence has been documented in various urban and remote regions worldwide, data from Central Europe remain scarce. This study focuses on the occurrence of microplastics within PM10 particulate matter collected in Kraków, Poland, a city characterized by complex emission sources and persistent air quality challenges. Preliminary observations indicate that microplastic particles, can be present as a component of airborne PM10. Their atmospheric presence suggests multiple emission pathways, including traffic-related abrasion, textile fiber release, and resuspension from urban surfaces. Understanding the occurrence and distribution of MPs in urban air is essential for assessing exposure scenarios and identifying research gaps related to inhalation risks. These findings underscore the need for further monitoring efforts and interdisciplinary research on airborne microplastics in densely populated environments.
How to cite: Uchmanowicz, D., Pyssa, J., Rzeszutek, M., and Styszko, K.: Occurrence of Microplastics in PM10 Airborne Particulate Matter in Kraków, Poland, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-21209, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-21209, 2026.
Micro- and nanoplastics (MNPs) are contaminants of emerging concern. With current research focusing mostly on their detection in the aquatic and terrestrial environment, atmospheric MNPs remain underrepresented. Recent studies confirm, that not only ingestion but also inhalation can be seen as a major exposure pathway, increasing exposure risks for humans and all air-breathing organisms.1 Moreover, the particle's ability to reach even remote areas through long-range atmospheric transport increases their threat as an environmental pollutant.2–4 Still, studies focusing on long-term monitoring of MNPs are scarce and their impact in the atmosphere is still poorly investigated.5,6
For this study, we sampled airborne MNPs using a PM10 Cascade Impactor over the course of 52 continuous weeks, separating our collected particles into four size-dependent fractions. Samples were subsequently analyzed using a high-resolution analytical method: TD-PTR-MS. Through qualitative and semi-quantitative analysis of even sub 1 µm particles, we successfully detected six common polymer types (PE, PP, PS, PVC, PET, TWP). By implementing this yearlong monitoring station at Sonnblick Observatory in the Austrian Alps, we were able to collect a significant dataset of MNPs pollution levels in the remote alpine region. We established current contamination levels in the atmosphere, while also being able to research the influence of seasonality including other meteorological parameters in more detail.
This study aims to present robust evidence of current contamination levels, possibly supporting ongoing policy dialogues and informing evidence-based decision-making.
References
[1] Rajendran, D. & Chandrasekaran, N. Journey of micronanoplastics with blood components. RSC Adv. 13, 31435–31459; 10.1039/D3RA05620A (2023).
[2] Illuminati, S. et al. Microplastics in bulk atmospheric deposition along the coastal region of Victoria Land, Antarctica. Sci. Total Environ. 949, 175221; 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.175221 (2024).
[3] Rosso, B. et al. Characteristics and quantification of small microplastics (<100 µm) in seasonal svalbard snow on glaciers and lands. J. Hazard. Mater. 467, 133723; 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2024.133723 (2024).
[4] Jurkschat, L. et al. Using a citizen science approach to assess nanoplastics pollution in remote high-altitude glaciers. Sci Rep 15, 1864; 10.1038/s41598-024-84210-9 (2025).
[5] Pradel, A., Catrouillet, C. & Gigault, J. The environmental fate of nanoplastics: What we know and what we need to know about aggregation. NanoImpact 29, 100453; 10.1016/j.impact.2023.100453 (2023).
[6] Kaushik, A., Peter, A. E., van Pinxteren, M., Scholz-Böttcher, B. M. & Herrmann, H. Composition, interactions and resulting inhalation risk of micro- and nano-plastics in urban air. Commun. Earth Environ. 6; 10.1038/s43247-025-02980-0 (2025).
How to cite: Latz, M., Ludewig, E., and Materić, D.: The four Seasons of Micro- and Nanoplastic in the Air, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-5085, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-5085, 2026.
We present an analysis of global atmospheric microplastics (MPs) concentration and deposition measurements using constrained Bayesian inverse modeling to estimate global MPs emissions. The proposed Bayesian framework explicitly accounts for unknown ratios between size fractions inherent to MPs measurements and incorporates prior emission information to stabilize the inversion. The coupling between observations and unknown emissions is established using the atmospheric transport model FLEXPART version 11 operated in backward mode for each measurement. Model parameters are inferred using a variational Bayes approach, resulting in an iterative estimation scheme that updates both model parameters and the effective spatial structure of the computational domain. This methodology reduces the need for manual intervention during the inversion process and limits potential bias in the results. The resulting global MPs emission estimates are evaluated against previously published ones.
Acknowledgment:
This research has been supported by the Czech Science Foundation (grant no. GA24-10400S). N.E. was funded by the Norwegian Research Council (NFR) project MAGIC (No.: 334086). FLEXPART model simulations are cross-atmospheric research infrastructure services provided by ATMO-ACCESS (EU grant agreement No 101008004). The computations were performed on resources provided by Sigma2 - the National Infrastructure for High Performance Computing and Data Storage in Norway.
How to cite: Tichý, O., Uliáš, M., Evangelou, I., Šmídl, V., and Evangeliou, N.: Global Atmospheric Microplastics Emissions Estimated Using Constrained Bayesian Inverse Modeling, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-10867, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-10867, 2026.
We present a top-down estimate of atmospheric microplastics (MPs) emissions based on deposition measurements, optimized against an atmospheric transport model (ATM). The central challenge of this work is the severe ill-posedness of the spatial-temporal inverse problem, as emissions cannot be uniquely inferred from the limited number of available measurements. To regularize the inversion, we constrain emissions to follow physically motivated source patterns associated with global road dust, agricultural activities, bare soils, and ocean surface, while estimating their strengths. The relationship between emissions and measurements is established using source–receptor sensitivity (SRS) fields calculated using the ATM Flexpart 11. To estimate source strengths and rigorously quantify uncertainties, we employ a Bayesian inversion framework with a hierarchical prior model, whose parameters are inferred using Gibbs sampler. This approach avoids excessive tuning and enables a realistic representation of uncertainty arising from measurements, transport modeling, and emission assumptions. The inferred atmospheric MPs emissions ranges are broadly consistent with existing literature and measurements from different areas around the world, and the framework provides a transparent and robust quantification of uncertainty in global atmospheric MPs emissions.
Acknowledgment:
This research has been supported by the Czech Science Foundation (grant no. GA24-10400S). N.E. were funded by the Norwegian Research Council (NFR) project MAGIC (No.: 334086). FLEXPART model simulations are cross-atmospheric research infrastructure services provided by ATMO-ACCESS (EU grant agreement No 101008004). The computations were performed on resources provided by Sigma2 - the National Infrastructure for High Performance Computing and Data Storage in Norway.
How to cite: Smidl, V., Evangelou, I., Košík, V., Evangeliou, N., and Tichý, O.: Bayesian Top-Down Pattern-Restricted Estimates of Atmospheric Microplastics Emissions using Gibbs sampler, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-11335, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-11335, 2026.
The rapid growth of the fast fashion industry over recent decades has led to a significant increase in global textile fibre production, with polyester becoming the dominant component. Concurrently, clothing is recognised as the predominant source of atmospheric polyester microfibres. The process of mechanical friction occurring during everyday outdoor human activities, e.g. walking, results in continuous polyester microfibre shedding into the air. Although this has significant consequences for both the environment and human health, the direct atmospheric emissions of polyester microfibres from clothing during everyday use have largely been overlooked.
This study aims at assessing the role of direct emission from the population and testing if it is the primary driver of airborne polyerster microfibers. For this, backward simulations with the Lagrangian particle dispersion model FLEXPART v11 (Bakels et al., 2024) are being conducted for a range of measurement sites located across Europe, with a focus on both urban and rural regions to investigate source-receptor relationships. To obtain the source contribution, emission sensitivities are coupled with gridded population density data to determine spatial emission patterns and to evaluate their consistency with reported airborne and deposited polyester microfibre observations. Forward simulations are utilised for sensitivity studies, in which polyester microfibre size distributions, aspect ratios, and emission factors are systematically varied to assess their influence on aerodynamic behaviour and atmospheric transport. The applied modelling framework enables the investigation of links between everyday clothing use and atmospheric polyester microfibre burdens.
How to cite: Höchtl, V., Bucci, S., Evangelou, I., and Stohl, A.: Direct atmospheric emissions of polyester microfibres from clothing, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-14540, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-14540, 2026.
Microplastics (MP) have been found in most terrestrial areas of the Earth including rural, remote and isolated locations where the only expected source is through atmospheric transport and deposition. Currently, there has been limited research on the mechanics of microplastic transport by wind, and in particular, the similarities and differences between the motion of mineral grains and microplastic particles within boundary layer flows. Such information is needed to lay the foundation for the development of models of mineral-microplastic interaction during transport in the environment. This study examines the influence of geometric form on the dynamics of microplastic particle entrainment and transport by wind. Using high speed photography, a series of particle tracking velocimetry (PTV) measurements were obtained in wind tunnel experiments to quantify and compare the kinetics of nylon fibres (volume equivalent spherical diameter (deq) of 314 µm ), polyethylene terephthalate fragments (deq=215 µm), polyethylene spheres (deq=182 µm), and quartz sand (deq=267 µm) during flight within a wall bounded airflow. Particular attention is given to quantifying the 2D velocity components of each particle as it approached and impacted the bed surface, as compared to the consequent rebound/ejection event. Preliminary results show that microplastic particles—particularly spheres, fragments, and fibres—exhibit higher transport velocities than quartz sand but impact the surface at shallower angles. These findings suggest that existing sediment transport models may require adaptation to account for the distinct behaviours of microplastics in aeolian systems.
How to cite: Alvarez Barrantes, L., Bullard, J. E., McKenna Neuman, C., and O’Brien, P.: Geometric Form and Density Govern Microplastic Particle Kinetics During Aeolian Transport, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-1719, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-1719, 2026.
We used a simultaneous, multi-compartment sampling approach to quantify microplastics (MPs) in the coastal zone of the Persian Gulf during winter and summer. Samples were collected from subsurface seawater, the sea-surface microlayer (SML), sea foam, suspended atmospheric particles and deposited dust. MPs were dominated by fibres of varied sizes and colours and, based on µ-Raman analysis of a subset, comprised thermoplastics, thermoplastic elastomers, synthetic rubbers and resins. MPs were strongly enriched in the SML and in sea foam relative to underlying seawater (enrichment factors on the order of 10², using SML thickness estimates up to 1000 µm), indicating the SML is a key reservoir and mediator of air–sea exchange. Estimated settling velocities in the lower atmosphere (derived from suspended concentrations and depositional fluxes) ranged from ~28 to 47 m h⁻¹, and size- and shape-dependent fractionation was evident: the finest fraction (<100 µm) showed greater affinity for the atmospheric phase, while larger particles were preferentially retained in aqueous reservoirs. Notably, the proportion of MPs as fibres correlated with concentration ratios involving Ca²⁺ (the only major seawater ion showing non-conservative behaviour), suggesting that regional biogeochemical processes (e.g., precipitation, flocculation, organic binding) may influence MP partitioning and fractionation. These observations point to coupled physical (bubble-mediated ejection, wave breaking, deposition) and biogeochemical controls on MP dynamics at the air–sea boundary. Our results highlight the SML and foam as critical compartments for MP accumulation and transfer and underscore the need for targeted laboratory and longer-term field studies to unravel mechanistic links between MP behaviour and coastal biogeochemistry.
Acknowledgements
This project received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Grant Agreement No. 101153990.
How to cite: Abbasi, S., Saemi-Komsari, M., Turner, A., and E. Sonke, J.: Dynamics of microplastics across the air–sea interface: enrichment in the sea-surface microlayer, foam, and links to regional biogeochemistry, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-2071, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-2071, 2026.
Airborne nanoplastics (NPs) are an emerging class of environmental contaminants with potential implications for air quality and human exposure, yet their sources remain poorly characterized. Given the widespread use of synthetic fibers in textiles and the recognition of household laundry washing as a major source of nanofibers to aquatic environments, this study aims to investigate emissions and characteristics of airborne polyester nanofibers released from household laundry dryer exhaust. Using online aerosol mass spectrometry (AMS) coupled with particle sizing measurements, particle emissions from drying polyester textiles with fleece-knitted and pile-weave fabric constructions were quantified and chemically resolved. This study presents the first direct observation of the co-emission of airborne polyester nanofibers and siloxane compounds, likely originating from fabric surface treatments. For pile-weave fabrics, major siloxane-related fragments contributed up to 11.5% of the total organic aerosol (OA) mass. Distinct polyester marker ions were reproducibly detected from five different polyester fabrics, but they accounted for less than 3% of the total OA mass measured during the drying process. Particle size measurements revealed an additional coarse mode peaking at approximately 3 µm, indicative of microfiber emissions, although their number concentrations were two orders of magnitude lower than those of nanoparticles peaking near 300 nm. Emission factors showed strong dependence on fabric construction and retained moisture, ranging from 0.1 to 10.5 mg of total organic mass per kilogram of polyester fabric. Under realistic moisture content scenarios, Canada-wide emissions of total organic aerosol from household laundry drying are estimated to be on the order of 1–10 tonnes per year. While this suggests that laundry drying is unlikely to be a major contributor to ambient PM2.5 mass in Canada, the potential human health and environmental implications of co-emitted polyester nanofibers and siloxane compounds warrant further investigation.
How to cite: Lee, A., Tawadrous, M., and Chan, A.: Co-emission of Siloxane Compounds with Polyester Nanofibers from Household Laundry Dryer Exhaust, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-13429, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-13429, 2026.
A direct consequence of the increasing number of atmospheric micro- and nanoplastic observations is the need for designing reliable atmospheric modelling, capable of describing their emission processes and transport. At the current state of the art, one of the main uncertainties lies in the identification of source regions and their relative contributions to observed atmospheric concentrations. In this work, we aim at comparing different atmospheric concentration studies in urban, periurban and remote locations, and their associated atmospheric transport analysis. The objective is to determine whether current source knowledge is sufficient to explain the observed variability, and whether any contribution (e.g. oceans, populated areas, agricultural activities) emerges as dominant.
The analysis covers a collection of data from literature, including total mass concentrations from Thermal Desorption–Proton Transfer Reaction–Mass Spectrometry (TD-PTR-MS) and particle-counting data from µ-Raman and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Backward simulations from FLEXPART v11 (Bakels et al. 2024) are used to evaluate the consistency between observed MP variability and candidate source regions. For some datasets, statistically significant correlations (up to ~80%) are found between modelled source sensitivities and observed concentrations, indicating that some source contributions are well captured, particularly in free-tropospheric regimes. However, in the cases in which a greater variety of sources was potentially involved, the analysis showed weak or absent correlations, highlighting both gaps in the current emission inventories hypothesis and limitations in the comparability of available observations.
Overall, our results indicate that no dominant single source can explain atmospheric microplastic observations across all environments. In the free troposphere, oceanic and mineral dust-related sources often emerge as main contributors, while near-surface and urban observations display more complex and site-specific signatures. These findings underscore the need for case-by-case source attribution, improved emission characterisation, and closer integration between modelling and measurement strategies to robustly constrain the atmospheric microplastic budget.
How to cite: Bucci, S., Evangelou, I., and Stohl, A.: Understanding the sources of atmospheric microplastics, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-13137, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-13137, 2026.
As air is entrained (e.g. surface wave breaking, waterfalls) or injected (e.g. wastewater aeration) into water, bubbles are formed and either dissolve or rise back to the surface, collapse, and eject droplets. These bubbles that burst at the water surface represent a key contribution to aerosol formation and facilitate the exchange of mass, momentum and energy between water bodies and the atmosphere with significant implications for weather and climate. In addition, environmental and industrial water bodies contain a large number of suspended materials, such as micro- and nanoplastics, pollutants and diverse microorganisms, which can be entrained in the ejected droplet and thereby pose major environmental and health risks.
While recent numerical studies have focused primarily on clean interfaces, the contaminants present in natural and industrial settings affect both the bubble size distribution and droplet ejection mechanisms through Marangoni stresses. The present work aims to characterise drop ejection dynamics in the presence of contaminants, with a focus on Marangoni stresses that lower surface tension and rigidify the interface.
Numerical simulations of bubbles bursting at a free surface are performed with the open source finite volume solver Basilisk. The mass and momentum conservation equations are solved on a Cartesian grid, using a Volume of Fluid method to capture the air-liquid interface while Adaptive Mesh Refinement allows to capture the jet dynamics. The effects of surface active agents or contaminants, often overlooked until recently in numerical simulations of bursting bubbles, are implemented and validated against experiments.
Droplet ejection mechanism and the number of drops produced are analysed through regime maps spanning a wide range of Bond, Ohnesorge and Marangoni numbers, which characterise the bubble size, the fluid properties and the contamination effects. In the jetting regime, drops dynamics are characterised in terms of size, velocity, and maximum height. Initial results highlight the crucial damping effects of contaminants on capillary waves and the resulting jet during cavity collapse. The entrainment of micro- and nanoplastics is discussed as a function of particle sizes and concentration, providing insight into the coupling between interfacial physics and aerosol generation.
How to cite: Abadie, T., Ghaemi, A., and Constante-Amores, R. C.: Numerical simulations of bursting bubbles: effects of contamination on droplet ejection and micro- and nanoplastics transport, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-15354, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-15354, 2026.
Whereas the presence of microplastic particles (1µm – 1mm) have been documented all around the globe, the evidence for plastic particles in the submicrometer size range (<1µm) and especially in the nano size range (NPs<100nm) falls short.1,2 This is, on the one hand, related to the lack of suitable sampling methods which allow a representative collection of plastic particles in the respective size range and, on the other hand, to the lack of analytical techniques providing sufficient lateral resolution and chemical specificity. The lateral resolution of commonly used vibrational spectroscopy methods such as infrared (IR) or Raman spectroscopy are diffraction limited to a few micrometers (IR) or slightly below 1µm (Raman) and are therefore not suitable for the analysis of submicron or nano sized plastic particles. Thus, other methods, either using shorter wavelengths (e.g. electron microscopy) or relying on non-optical effects (e.g., atomic force microscopy (AFM)) have to be used. In this study, we assessed the potential of AFM-IR to detect and quantify submicron and nanoscale plastic particles. We evaluated different substates for their suitability to conduct AFM-IR analysis and found silicon (Si) wafers most suitable. Other substrates such as mica were well suited to image particles using the AFM but led to artefacts or high background contributions during AFM-IR analysis. Size detection limits depended on the polymer types and were as low as 80nm for polystyrene.
Synthetic aerosols containing major particulate components of the urban atmosphere including photochemically aged soot, organic compounds, geogenic dust and salts were collected using an electrostatic sampling device. This approach allowed a representative collection of individual aerosol particles directly on laser cut Si wafers with a diameter of 3mm.3 AFM-IR analysis of individual particles demonstrated the high specificity of the method and allowed identifying the different particle and polymer types in complex (aerosol) mixtures. After removing water soluble compounds such as salts in an initial washing step, particles collected electrostatically from the urban atmosphere were dominated by soot, whereas NPs were not detected. Based on our dataset, the maximum possible atmospheric concentration of NPs in the analyzed air sample was estimated at 9 NPs per cm3. Future studies will be dedicated to a selective enrichment of NPs to further constrain the concentration of NPs in ambient air.
References
(1) R. C. Thompson, W. Courtene-Jones, J. Boucher, S. Pahl, K. Raubenheimer and A. A. Koelmans, Twenty years of microplastic pollution research-what have we learned?, Science, 2024, 386, eadl2746.
(2) N. P. Ivleva, Chemical Analysis of Microplastics and Nanoplastics: Challenges, Advanced Methods, and Perspectives, Chem Rev, 2021, 121, 11886-11936.
(3) R. Kaegi, M. Fierz and B. Hattendorf, Quantification of Nanoparticles in Dispersions Using Transmission Electron Microscopy, Microsc Microanal, 2021, 27, 557-565.
How to cite: Kaegi, R., Kummer, N., Horender, S., Kulmala, T. S., Vasilatou, K., and Hueglin, C.: AFM-IR as a tool to detect nanoplastic particles in aerosols, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-18546, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-18546, 2026.
Airborne micro- and nanoplastic (AMNP) pollution is ubiquitous in the environment, and its abundance and persistence in the atmosphere have raised global concern. Transport and the changing interface of micro- and nanoplastics play an essential role in linking their sources and sinks within the planetary system. In this study, an airborne micro- and nanoplastic measurement campaign was conducted using our newly developed active samplers to investigate the unique sources and interface changes of AMNPs in Hong Kong. These include tyre wear from take-off and landing operations at Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA). Two distinct sampling sites from Tung Chung for airport-related AMNPs were selected. Seasonal measurements were arranged to capture both seasonal and event-based variations in AMNP concentrations. All collected samples underwent Micro-FTIR and PY-GC-MS analyses to determine the physical properties (e.g., size, shape, morphology) and chemical composition of AMNPs, and were subsequently applied to source and receptor analyses. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first survey of atmospheric AMNPs in Hong Kong, providing essential information on background AMNP levels.
How to cite: Lam, Y. F., Ching, P. P. J., Wang, Y., Okochi, H., and Takeuchi, M.: Characterisation and Source Identification of Atmosphericmicro/nanoplastics in Hong Kong, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-19608, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-19608, 2026.
Nanoplastic particles (NPPs) are emerging anthropogenic pollutants identified from urban to remote areas. Characterizing the spatial and temporal distribution, process, and cloud-forming potential of atmospheric NPPs improves understanding of their environmental processes and climate impacts. This study provides the spatial and temporal distribution of several types of nanoplastic particles in the Houston area, including polystryene (PS), polyethylene (PE), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), showing an average concentration ranging from tens to hundreds of nanogram per cubic meter, with high spatial variability.
In addition, we also presented the first quantified heterogeneous reaction rate and lifetimes of polystyrene (PS) NPPs against common atmospheric oxidants. The atomized PS NPPs were introduced to a Potential Aerosol Mass (PAM) oxidation flow reactor with ·OH exposure of 0 to 1.5 × 1012 molecule cm-3 s, equivalent to atmospheric exposure from 0 to 18 days, assuming ambient ·OH concentration of 1 × 106 cm-3. The decay of the PS mass concentration was quantified by monitoring tracer ions, C6H6+ (m/z 78) and C8H8+ (m/z 104), using a high-resolution time-of-flight aerosol mass spectrometer (HR-ToF-AMS). The pseudo-first-order rate constant of PS particles reacting with ·OH, kOH, was determined to be (3.2 × 0.7) × 10-13 cm3 molecule-1 s-1, equivalent to a half-lifetime of a few hours to ~80 days in the atmosphere, depending on particle sizes and hydroxyl radical concentrations. The hygroscopicity of 100 nm PS NPPs at different ·OH exposure levels was quantified using a cloud condensation nuclei counter (CCNC), showing a two-fold increase of hygroscopicity parameter upon 27 days of atmospheric photo-oxidation.
Overall, the above results suggest that atmospheric processes can be an important part of the total plastic cycle in the environmental systems, faciliating both short range and long range transport of plastic globally.
How to cite: Zhang, Y., Gagan, S., Mammadov, R., Niu, S., Dodero, A., Olin, M., Cheng, Z., Lambe, A., Chen, Y., and China, S.: Characterizing the Atmospheric Concentration, Transformation, and Cloud Condensation Nuclei Activity of Nanoplastic Particles, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-22094, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-22094, 2026.
Airborne small micro- and nanoplastics (MNP) are ubiquitous in the atmosphere and pose a potential health risk, as they can enter deep into the lungs and into the bloodstream. Accurate quantification of atmospheric MNP load, source attribution, and deposition is crucial for the assessment of the plastic burden and fluxes.
In March-April 2025, the CAINA project conducted an extensive field campaign in the Netherlands. Quartz filter samples were taken at Cabauw, an urban background monitoring site situated within an agricultural landscape and influenced by its proximity to the major urban centers of Rotterdam and Amsterdam. The samples were taken using a high-volume air sampler with a PM2.5 size cut-off. Twenty filters were collected during the campaign. Each filter represented a 24-hour continuous air sampling period. These filters are analyzed in the laboratory for inorganic ions, organic aerosol composition, and MNP quantification.
The MNP load was quantified using a Thermal Desorption-Proton Transfer Reaction-Mass Spectrometer (TD-PTR-MS) together with Multicomponent Multivariate Standard Addition (MMSA). Filter aliquots were heated from 50°C to 350°C to desorb material on the filter, and detected by PTR-MS. By incrementally adding plastic standards to the samples, mass concentrations of polystyrene (PS), polyethene (PE), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and polypropylene (PP) can be retrieved accurately by applying Non-Negative Matrix Factorization (NMF).
Using atmospheric back trajectory analysis, the origin of the sampled air mass will be discussed. Distinct air mass regimes were observed, characterized by periods of relatively clean air associated with northerly winds and periods of elevated pollution associated with easterly air mass transport.
How to cite: Kroese, W. S. J., Ooms, P., Omidikia, N., Fry, J., Dusek, U., and Holzinger, R.: Quantifying Atmospheric Small Micro- and Nanoplastics (MNP) in The Netherlands, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-21210, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-21210, 2026.
