A method for the detection of tire wear microplastics in zebrafish guts by laterally resolved LA-ICP-MS-based elemental fingerprinting and chemometrics

Brunnbauer, Lukas (author), Juračka, Šimon (author), Vykypělová, Michaela (author), Vrlíková, Lucie (author), Eitenberger, Elisabeth (author), Pořízka, Pavel (author), Adamovsky, Ondrej (author), Kaiser, Jozef (author), Kalčíková, Gabriela (author), Limbeck, Andreas (author)

Tire wear particles (TWPs) are generated by mechanical abrasion of tires on road surfaces and represent a significant source of microplastic pollution, contributing an estimated 30–50% of total microplastic emissions in Europe. Due to their persistence and limited biodegradability, TWPs accumulate in terrestrial, aquatic, and atmospheric environments. However, their detection and quantification remain challenging: carbon black hampers FTIR analysis, while pyrolysis-GC-MS yields only bulk mass data without information about particle abundance or size distribution. We present a novel approach to address this gap using laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) combined with elemental fingerprinting and machine learning. We apply this method to zebrafish gut tissue to differentiate TWPs from biological tissue, paraffin-embedded material, and other naturally occurring particles. A random forest model trained on multielement signatures enables pixelwise classification of imaging data recorded with 7-μm lateral resolution despite the complexity of both TWP and biological matrices. Our results demonstrate the potential of LA-ICP-MS elemental imaging as a sensitive tool for TWP detection in biological tissue, providing new opportunities for monitoring and ecotoxicological studies.

• Language: English
• Keywords: microplastics, tire wear, microplastic detection
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FKKT - Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Technology
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: Str. 11760-11768
• Numbering: Vol. 98, iss. 16
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-182370
• UDC: 543:504.5:678
• ISSN on article: 0003-2700
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.5c07035
• COBISS.SI-ID: 277334019
• Publication date in RUL: 08.05.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Analytical chemistry
• Shortened title: Anal. chem.
• Publisher: American Chemical Society
• ISSN: 0003-2700
• COBISS.SI-ID: 5085703

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: mikroplastika, pnevmatike, detekcija mikroplastike