Recent Investigation of Characterizing, quantifying, and Contamination of Microplastic in the surface water of Adyar River Estuary, Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract

Abstract In the current scenario, microplastics are an ever-increasing contaminant that poses an environmental hazard to the surface water environment. The foremost objective of current research is to examine the identity, characterizing, spatial distribution throughout, and abundance of microplastics in the Adyar River estuary. Microplastics have been found in the estuary's water samples utilizing the NOAA approach. Polymers such as polyethylene (52%), polypropylene (32%), and polystyrene (16%) were often identified in all water sampling sites. Surface water (total microplastic items = 82; total sampling site = 12) was found to be contaminated with 1–9 items/site of various kinds of microplastics. Colorless (17.0%), white (15.0%), black (29.0%), green (11.0%), blue (13.0%), and red (15.0%) microplastics were found in the estuary's water of Adyar River. To investigate the characteristics of microplastics, analytical techniques such as FTIR and microplastics identified by stereo microscopy (SM) were utilized. The largest part frequent types of microplastic to be discovered in the surface water of estuary are fibers (39.0%), fragments (27.0%), films (16.0%), foam (11.0%), and pebbles (7.0%). This research represents a basis for a study on the microplastic pollution of the Adyar River estuary in Tamil Nadu, India.