Tire and road wear particles (TRWPs) are generated from friction between tires and the road and contain polymer tread with pavement encrustations. Single particle analysis (SPA) of tire source contribution in environmental samples has been limited by interferences in common spectroscopic polymer techniques.
This study extends a density separation and chemical mapping protocol for road simulator generated TRWPs toward the identification and characterization of individual TRWPs in more complex road dust, road-dust-spiked artificial sediment, tunnel dust, and environmental settling pond sediment samples.
TRWPs were identified by a combination of physical and elemental surface characteristics.
The SPA methodologies determined the size distribution of TRWPs in environmental sample types with increasing sample complexity.
