While plastics have yielded immense benefits to society, discarded plastics or plastic pollution has become a pervasive highly visible problem especially in the marine environment. Plastic pollution is comprised of many different types of plastics with different shapes and chemical additives. Chemical methods are therefore needed to answer fundamental questions about quantities, types, sources, transport, fate and impact of plastic pollution in all components of our environment.
Plastic marine debris from a windward beach of the Main Hawaiian Islands catalogued and awaiting polymer identification.
NIST seeks to be an international leader and magnet for plastic pollution chemical measurement science. While plastics have yielded immense benefits to society, plastic pollution has become a pervasive global environmental threat requiring urgent understanding and solutions. Plastic pollution is comprised of many different types of plastics (polymers) and chemical additives and spans an enormous range of sizes, from nanoplastics to megaplastics. Chemical methods are needed across this size continuum to answer fundamental questions about quantities, sources, transport, fate, impacts, and recycling of plastic pollution in all components of our environment.
Reliable measurement methods of plastic quantities and characteristics (e.g. particle size, shape, polymer identity, chemical additive concentration) in complex environmental matrices are still in development. Best practices, reference materials, and inter-laboratory exercises can harmonize plastic pollution measurements. Armed with the most accurate information collected from the most optimal methods, policymakers, industry and the public can target the most effective solutions, such as prevention at the source or recycling.
NIST CSD BESG scientists are currently focused on five research activities. Methods and technologies developed are transferred to faculty, staff, and students at the Center for Marine Debris Research to answer urgent, fundamental and applied questions regarding plastic marine debris. This work is part of NIST's Circular Economy program, which supports the nation’s need to transition away from a linear economy model in which materials are extracted from the environment, manufactured into products that are discarded toward an economy in which the atoms and molecules that make up plastic products are reused and retain their value.
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Status |
SRM 1453 |
out of stock |
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SRM 1473c |
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SRM 1474b |
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SRM 1475a |
out of stock |
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SRM 1476a |
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SRM 1478 |
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SRM 1479 |
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SRM 1482a |
Linear Polyethylene Narrow Molecular Mass Distribution (13 600 g/mol) |
out of stock |
SRM 1483a |
Linear Polyethylene Narrow Molecular Mass Distribution (32 100 g/mol) |
out of stock |
SRM 1484a |
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SRM 1487 |
discontinued |
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SRM 1488 |
Poly(methyl methacrylate) 29 K Narrow Molecular Weight Distribution |
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SRM 1690 |
out of stock |
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SRM 1691 |
out of stock |
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SRM 1961 |
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SRM 1963a |
out of stock |
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SRM 1964 |
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SRM 1965 |
discontinued |
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SRM 2855 |
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SRM 2859 |
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SRM 2860 |
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SRM 2861 |
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SRM 2870 |
Relative Permittivity and Loss Tangent 1422 Cross-Linked Polystyrene |
discontinued |
SRM 2885 |
out of stock |
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SRM 2886 |
out of stock |
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SRM 2887 |
out of stock |
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SRM 705a |
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SRM 706a |
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SRM 8540 |
IAEA-CH-7 (Carbon and Hydrogen Isotopes in Polyethylene Foil) |
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1. Seeley, M. E., Hale, R. C., Zwollo, P., Vogelbein, W., Verry, G., and Wargo, A. R., "Microplastics exacerbate virus-mediated mortality in fish," Science of the Total Environment, 866, (2023).
2. Seeley, M. E. and Lynch, J. M., "Previous successes and untapped potential of pyrolysis-GC/MS for the analysis of plastic pollution," Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry, (2023).
3. Kotula, A. P., Orski, S. V., Brignac, K. C., Lynch, J. M., and Heilala, B. M. J., "Time-gated Raman spectroscopy of recovered plastics," Marine Pollution Bulletin, 181, (2022).
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8. Hyrenbach, K. D., McGinnis, Z., Page, K., Rapp, D., Horgen, F. D., and Lynch, J. M., "Assessment of plastic ingestion by pole-caught pelagic predatory fish from O'ahu, Hawai'i," Aquatic Conservation-Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, 31, 408-419 (2021).
9. Cowger, W., Booth, A. M., Hamilton, B. M., Thaysen, C., Primpke, S., Munno, K., Lusher, A. L., Dehaut, A., Vaz, V. P., Liboiron, M., Devriese, L. I., Hermabessiere, L., Rochman, C., Athey, S. N., Lynch, J. M., De Frond, H., Gray, A., Jones, O. A. H., Brander, S., Steele, C., Moore, S., Sanchez, A., and Nel, H., "Reporting Guidelines to Increase the Reproducibility and Comparability of Research on Microplastics," Applied Spectroscopy, 74, 1066-1077 (2020).
10. Brignac, K. C., Jung, M. R., King, C., Royer, S. J., Blickley, L., Lamson, M. R., Potemra, J. T., and Lynch, J. M., "Marine Debris Polymers on Main Hawaiian Island Beaches, Sea Surface, and Seafloor," Environ. Sci. Technol., 53, 12218-12226 (2019).
11. Currie, J. J., Stack, S. H., Brignac, K. C., and Lynch, J. M., "Nearshore sea surface macro marine debris in Maui County, Hawaii: Distribution, drivers, and polymer composition," Marine Pollution Bulletin, 138, 70-83 (2019).
12. Gove, J. M., Whitney, J. L., McManus, M. A., Lecky, J., Carvalho, F. C., Lynch, J. M., Li, J. W., Neubauer, P., Smith, K. A., Phipps, J. E., Kobayashi, D. R., Balagso, K. B., Contreras, E. A., Manuel, M. E., Merrifield, M. A., Polovina, J. J., Asner, G. P., Maynard, J. A., and Williams, G. J., "Prey-size plastics are invading larval fish nurseries," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 116, 24143-24149 (2019).
13. Clukey, K. E., Lepczyk, C. A., Balazs, G. H., Work, T. M., Li, Q. X., Bachman, M. J., and Lynch, J. M., "Persistent organic pollutants in fat of three species of Pacific pelagic longline caught sea turtles: Accumulation in relation to ingested plastic marine debris," Science of the Total Environment, 610, 402-411 (2018).
14. Jung, M. R., Horgen, F. D., Orski, S. V., Rodriguez, C. V., Beers, K. L., Balazs, G. H., Jones, T. T., Work, T. M., Brignac, K. C., Royer, S. J., Hyrenbach, K. D., Jensen, B. A., and Lynch, J. M., "Validation of ATR FT-IR to identify polymers of plastic marine debris, including those ingested by marine organisms," Marine Pollution Bulletin, 127, 704-716 (2018).
15. Jung, M. R., Balazs, G. H., Work, T. M., Jones, T. T., Orski, S. V., Rodriguez, C. V., Beers, K. L., Brignac, K. C., Hyrenbach, K. D., Jensen, B. A., and Lynch, J. M., "Polymer Identification of Plastic Debris Ingested by Pelagic-Phase Sea Turtles in the Central Pacific," Environ. Sci. Technol., 52, 11535-11544 (2018).
16. Jennifer M. Lynch. “Quantities of Marine Debris Ingested by Sea Turtles: Global Meta-Analysis Highlights Need for Standardized Data Reporting Methods and Reveals Relative Risk.” Environ.Sci.Technol. 52 (21):12026-12038, 2018.
17. Clukey, K. E., Lepczyk, C. A., Balazs, G. H., Work, T. M., and Lynch, J. M., "Investigation of plastic debris ingestion by four species of sea turtles collected as bycatch in pelagic Pacific longline fisheries," Marine Pollution Bulletin, 120, 117-125 (2017).