Microplastics as stratigraphic tracers of post-1950 deposition in a reworked tropical estuary, Brazil (Dataset)
Description
This dataset supports the article "Microplastics as stratigraphic tracers of post-1950 deposition in a reworked tropical estuary, Brazil." The data comprises the characterization of microplastics and fly ash particles sampled from a 240-cm sediment profile collected in the Cubatão River (Santos-Cubatão Estuarine System, SE Brazil). Methods: - Visual Identification: Particles were manually separated using a Zeiss stereomicroscope (Carl Zeiss GmbH) and an Axiocam 705 camera. Morphometric analysis (major and minor axes) was performed via Zeiss ZEN 3.11 software. - µ-FTIR Spectroscopy: Chemical identification was conducted using an Agilent Cary 630 spectrometer coupled to a Cary 610 FTIR microscope (ATR mode). Spectral range: 4000–550 cm-¹ at 4 cm-¹ resolution. - SEM-EDS Analysis: Surface morphology and elemental composition were analyzed using a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) coupled with Energy-Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS) (JEOL JSM-IT500HR). - Data Processing: Raw transmittance spectra were converted to absorbance-like units (intensity) and normalized. A Savitzky-Golay filter was used for noise reduction, and linear interpolation was applied to remove atmospheric CO2 interference (2278–2389 cm-¹).
Files
Steps to reproduce
This dataset contains visual identification data, µ-FTIR spectra and SEM-EDS analzyed of microplastics isolated from Santos–Cubatão Estuarine System (Brazil). The sample_IDs are available in Dataset to navegate to FTIR and SEM-EDS files. Files included: • Dataset.xlsx – Visual Identification, morphological characterization and samples_ID • FTIR.zip – Raw spectral files for polymer identification. • SEM-EDS.zip – EDS analysis and high-resolution images of selected particles. For questions regarding this dataset, please contact p118405@dac.unicamp.br.
Institutions
- Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP)São Paulo, Campinas