A review on challenges and developments of analytical pyrolysis and other thermoanalytical techniques for the quali-quantitative determination of microplastics

Environmental pollution from microplastics (MPs) and the associated health and environmental risks are the focus of intense multidisciplinary research. In fact, that there is an urgent need to produce quantitative and qualitative data on the amount and types of MPs in environmental matrices, organisms, and commodities, and to perform spatial and temporal comparisons. This has led to the development, optimization and application of analytical methods to characterize MPs in aquatic, terrestrial or biological samples. Instrumental analytical techniques based on analytical pyrolysis and thermal analyses provide qualitative and mass-based quantitative information and have a high potential to become of general use in the analysis of MPs. This paper reviews the research carried out to date in the analysis of MPs by analytical thermal and pyrolysis techniques. The aim is to provide a detailed and comprehensive critical examination of recent quantitative analysis developments, integrated with a brief historical excursus. The main analytical issues and limitations are described with practical detail, to provide an overview of the rapid ongoing development of this sector of analytical chemistry, and to contribute to the activities aimed at evaluating, comparing and standardising analytical techniques and analytical data in MP research.