Establishment of a Spectral Detection Method for Microfluoroplastics: Revealing Widespread Pollution and Conventional Digestion-Induced Underestimation

Fluoroplastics are extensively used worldwide, yet their environmental occurrence as microfluoroplastics (MFPs) remains poorly understood due to limited analytical methods. Herein, we collected standard spectra of six typical MFPs with different morphologies and particle sizes and constructed two spectral libraries for MFP detection: a full-series microplastics spectral library (library 1) and a proprietary MFP spectral library (library 2). Recovery tests verified high recognition accuracy for both pristine and aged MFPs. Meanwhile, an optimized rapid extreme digestion method for MFP pretreatment was established. Applied in conjunction with library 1, field detection showed MFP abundances were nearly doubled, demonstrating severe underestimation by conventional H 2 O 2 digestion. High abundances of MFPs were detected in food prepared with nonstick cookware, revealing a unique human exposure pathway to MFPs. In addition, more than 800,000 published particle spectra from indoor and outdoor dust across 39 Chinese cities, total suspended particulates from five Asian cities, and sediment samples at nine depth layers were reanalyzed using library 2. The six target MFPs were ubiquitously distributed, accounting for 1.6%–8.3% of the total microplastics. This work provides the first systematic MFP baseline data and highlights MFPs as a previously overlooked critical component of microplastic pollution.