Michael Sturm "live" and online
at the MICRO 2020 conference

MICRO 2020 "

Fate and Impact of Microplastics: Knowledge, Actions and Solutions" is a scientific conference

that will bring together the scientific community and stakeholders - virtually, usually on Lanzarote - from 23 to 27 November 2020.

It is all about microplastics.

The conference will focus on marine ecosystems, freshwater bodies, social change and behavior, human health, and politics

Michael Sturm – Researcher with a passion for
waters without microplastics

Michael Sturm will join the conference MICRO 2020 with two lectures

. Michael works for Wasser 3.0 in the areas of research and development and is doing his doctorate at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology about microplastic-free sea salt extraction.

Michael and Wasser 3.0 look back on six years of joint work. In both his bachelor's and master's thesis, he combined his

passions for chemistry and environmental protection under the umbrella of Wasser 3.0

(at the time still a research project under the junior professorship of Katrin Schuhen).

Removing microplastics from various waters

In his talk "Removal of microplastics from waters using organosilanes - comparison of environmental factors and polymer types" Michael talks about the method developed by Wasser 3.0 to remove microplastics from waters efficiently and sustainably using organosilanes.

The focus is on the influence of different polymer and plastic types

. Knowing that there are about

200 polymer types and innumerable variants

, all of which have

different properties and thus different requirements for removal from waters

, we face a broad spectrum and multi-faceted field of application.

Michael also explains the

influence of different types of water on the removal process

. Taking this into account appropriately is elementary for the transfer of the process to real applications.

Detection of microplastics using fluorescence dyes

The talk "The potential of fluorescence dyes - Comparative study of Nile red and three derivatives for the detection of microplastics" deals with the detection of microplastics in environmental samples using different fluorescent markers.

The detection of microplastics in environmental samples is currently very time-consuming and requires expensive and complicated measuring equipment, which many research institutes, especially in poorer countries, cannot afford.

Detection with Nile red is a cost-effective and easy-to-use alternative and is one of the R&D focuses of Wasser 3.0. Nile red selectively stains microplastics present in the sample, which then glows brightly under a fluorescence microscope and is easy to count.

Together with the cooperation partner abcr GmbH, new Nilrot derivatives were developed for improved application and their properties against different polymer types and natural particles (e.g. wood, lime, insect skins) were investigated.