Microscopy & Microtechniques


Microscopy and Microplastics research reveals worrying environmental implications


Julia Parker, Diamond Light Source


A recent project conducted by in-house researchers at the UK’s national synchrotron facility on its Hard X-ray Nanoprobe beamline, looked at how microplastics waste may interact with zinc oxide (ZnO) nanomaterials in both freshwater and seawater scenarios. Their work published in Global Challenges revealed worrying environmental implications for aquatic organisms in the food chain.


Diamond accelerates electrons to produce intense light across the spectrum from UV and IR to X-rays that are used across instruments known as beamlines. Diamond has 34 beamlines grouped into eight science areas: macromolecular crystallography; soft condensed matter; cryo-biological imaging; imaging and microscopy; spectroscopy; crystallography; magnetic materials; structures and surfaces, enabling scientists to investigate the structure and properties of samples using a variety of imaging, scattering, diffraction and spectroscopic techniques.


The Imaging and Microscopy Group is made up of seven beamlines as well as the advanced Transmission Electron Microscopes (TEM) in the electron Physical Science Imaging Centre [ePSIC], which use electrons and X-rays to image samples under different experimental conditions across a range of length and time scales. The ability to image sample properties from atomic to macro scale using different modalities to extract information on phase, microstructure , chemical distributions, and under in situ conditions lends itself to a wide range of scientifi c areas, from chemistry and catalysis to environmental science, materials science, biology, medicine, and cultural heritage.


The research team used the Hard X-ray Nanoprobe beamline (Beamline I14) to look at how microplastics waste may interact with zinc oxide (ZnO) nanomaterials in freshwater and seawater scenarios. To make their study more relevant to the real world, the team tested a sunscreen containing zinc oxide, commonly used to block UV- radiation and a facial scrub containing tiny plastic beads – microbeads.


Their results confi rmed that mixtures of Zn-aggregates and micro polymers were naturally leached and released from the commercial products revealing the potential for serious environmental implications. Fish and other aquatic organisms in the food chain can potentially ingest microplastics as well as zinc particles.


Lead author and beamline scientist, Miguel Gomez Gonzalez, explained that the team’s research revealed valuable information about how zinc oxide behaves in the environment and the dangers this poses to the food chain.


Explaining the impetus for the research, Miguel said that they had all seen how in recent decades, there has been a dramatic increase in the manufacture of engineered nanomaterials (particles about 1,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair),


which has inevitably led to their dispersal into the environment. Zinc oxide (ZnO) is among one of the more abundant nanomaterials fabricated due to its use in electronics, semiconductors, and for antibacterial purposes. At the same time, plastic waste has become ubiquitous and may break down into smaller pieces called microplastics. These also are tiny, but ~100 times bigger than the nanomaterials.


Because both these elements are becoming more widespread in the environment, it is important to study what happens when they are potentially being combined in freshwater and seawater, in order to make environmental risk assessments more accurate.


Figure 1: Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis for the ZnO nanomaterials stabilised in tap-water for seven days and further incubated with microplastics for 24 hours. The left SEM image is a low-magnifi cation view, with the middle image focussed on the region subsequently quantifi ed. The Zn-signal from the energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) is displayed on the right after applying a different colour map and adjusting the histogram accordingly.


Images are an adaptation of the published paper at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/gch2.202300036.


Figure 2: X-ray fl uorescence (XRF, left) maps (100 nm pixel size) for the Zn signal and differential phase contrast (DPC, right) image for morphological inspection of the adsorbed structures measured at the hard X-ray nanoprobe (I14 beamline). Zn-particles from the sunscreen were deposited on the pristine microplastics after incubation in seawater (top row) while ZnO nanomaterials were deposited on the microplastics leached from the exfoliating cleanser after incubation in seawater as well (bottom row).


Images are an adaptation of the published paper at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/gch2.202300036.


LAB ASIA - FEBRUARY 2025


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