Label-free impedimetric analysis of microplastics dispersed in aqueous media polluted by Pb 2+ ions

The rapid differentiation between polluted and unpolluted microplastics (MPs) is critical for tracking their presence in the environment and underpinning their potential risks to humans. However, the quantitative analysis of polluted microplastics on the field is limited by the lack of rapid methods that do not need optical analysis nor their capture onto sophisticated electrochemical sensor platforms. Herein, a simple analytical approach for MPs dispersed in aqueous media leveraging electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) analysis on screen-printed sensors is presented. This method is demonstrated by the EIS-based analysis of two standards of microplastics beads (MPs), one of polystyrene (PS) and one of polystyrene carboxylated (PS-COOH), when exposed to aqueous solutions containing Pb ions. The adsorption of Pb ions on the MPs was quantitatively determined by voltammetric analysis. EIS permitted to rapidly (about 2 minutes) differentiate clean MPs from the Pb polluted ones. These results could constitute a first-step towards the realization of a portable impedimetric sensor for the quantification of microplastics polluted by metal ions in aqueous solutions.