SURF Program Research Opportunity in Waimanalo, Hawaii

Host Laboratories and offices

• About Material Measurement Laboratory (MML)
• About The Center for Marine Debris Research

2024 Research Opportunities

Chemical Sciences Division (Div 646)

646-5 Using Chemical Changes in Weathered Plastic Polymers to Estimate Age of Plastic Pollution
Jennifer Lynch, (808) 236-3582, jkeller [at] nist.gov (jkeller[at]nist[dot]gov)
Plastic pollution began in the 1950s with the commercialization of plastic products. When we remove plastic marine debris today, we want to know how old it is. Knowing its age can help society and policymakers determine what changes are needed today to prevent or mitigate this environmental problem. The Center for Marine Debris Research, a joint institute between the NIST and Hawaii Pacific University, seeks to find a reliable chemical timestamp by using changes in the polymeric structure upon years of exposure to ultraviolet sunlight. Plastic polymers exposed to different durations of UV in the NIST SPHERE, an accelerated-weathering chamber, will be used to create calibration curves of chemical changes over time. Samples of plastic pollution from the North Pacific Ocean will be timestamped with these curves. The student will participate in laboratory work, analyzing the samples on ATR-FTIR, DSC, uFTIR, uRaman, and/or pyrolysis-GC/MS. Some field work of plastic marine debris removal will be available. The student will be responsible for analyzing the data, archiving data and samples, and presenting the results to NIST and CMDR faculty, staff and students. [In-person opportunity]

646-6 Develop Methods to Measure Counts and Sizes of Microplastics and Concentrations of Plastic Additive Chemicals in Water Samples and Standard Reference Materials
Jennifer Lynch, (808) 236-3582, jkeller [at] nist.gov (jkeller[at]nist[dot]gov)
Plastic pollution comes in all sizes and shapes and is a cocktail of polymers and additive chemicals that are of environmental and human health concern. The Center for Marine Debris Research, a joint institute of the NIST and Hawaii Pacific University, seeks to develop optimal, standardized methods for quantifying and characterizing plastic pollution. This study will help optimize methods to accurately measure the size distribution of microplastics or concentrations of plastic additives in water samples and/or NIST Standard Reference Materials. The student will participate in laboratory work and learn skills in filtration, density separation, microscopy, spectroscopy, thermal analysis, pyrolysis-GC/MS, and/or GC/MS. The student will be responsible for conducting spike-recovery experiments, processing samples, and analyzing data on microplastics and plastic additives. The student will present results to NIST and CMDR faculty, staff and students.  [In-person opportunity]

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