Interlaboratory Comparison Reveals State of the Art in Microplastic Detection and Quantification Methods.

In this study, we investigate the current accuracy of widely used microplastic (MP) detection methods through an interlaboratory comparison (ILC) involving ISO-approved techniques. The ILC was organized under the prestandardization platform of VAMAS (Versailles Project on Advanced Materials and Standards) and gathered a large number (84) of analytical laboratories across the globe. The aim of this ILC was (i) to test and to compare two thermo-analytical and three spectroscopical methods with respect to their suitability to identify and quantify microplastics in a water-soluble matrix and (ii) to test the suitability of the microplastic test materials to be used in ILCs.

Nature of cobalt species during the in situ sulfurization of Co(Ni)Mo/AlO hydrodesulfurization catalysts.

The evolution in local structure and electronic properties of cobalt was investigated during in situ sulfurization. Using a combination of 1s X-ray absorption (XAS) and 1s3p resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS), the valence, coordination and symmetry of cobalt ions were tracked in two cobalt-promoted molybdenum oxide precursors of the hydrodesulfurization catalyst system, namely Co-Mo/AlO and Co-Ni-Mo/AlO. Extended X-ray absorption fine structure shows that the Co-O bonds were replaced with Co-S bonds as a function of reaction temperature.