Feasibility Study for the Development of a Low-Cost, Compact, and Fast Sensor for the Detection and Classification of Microplastics in the Marine Environment

Abstract

The detection and classification of microplastics in the marine environment is a complex task that implies the use of delicate and expensive instrumentation. In this paper, we present a preliminary feasibility study for the development of a low-cost, compact microplastics sensor that could be mounted, in principle, on a float of drifters, for the monitoring of large marine surfaces. The preliminary results of the study indicate that a simple sensor equipped with three infrared-sensitive photodiodes can reach classification accuracies around 90% for the most-diffused floating microplastics in the marine environment (polyethylene and polypropylene).

Keywords

• microplastics
• microplastic detection
• marine environment
• polyethylene
• polypropylene
• infrared reflectivity