Fate and transport of microplastics from water sources

Microplastics as environmental pollutants affect surface water and groundwater. Surface water, groundwater and branded drinking water bottles were analysed in and around Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. The total count of microplastics was found to be 66 particles with fibrous and fragmented shape, colours such as white, blue, green, yellow, pink and black under optical microscope. SEM-EDX-used to study morphology and elemental analysis of microplastics confirmed the presence of heavy metals such as Cr, Ti, Mo, Ba and Ru adhered to their surface. Polyethylene terephthalate and polyamide were confirmed by the presence of functional groups of the polymers by FTIR equipped with attenuated total reflectance.