Entry #22 - World's Smallest Football

This tiny football is actually a PVC microplastic that has been imaged with SEM. Microplastics like this one find their way into the atmosphere where their impacts are still uncertain. This microplastic was being analyzed to determine the surface morphology as a part of a larger study on the role microplastics may play as ice nucleating particles in the atmosphere. The surface area of microplastics is difficult to determine reliably through gas adsorption and so stereoscopic SEM was attempted to get a better estimate of the surface area of these particles. The size of the microplastics makes them difficult to entirely coat during sputter coating. This leads to charging of the sample by the electron beam and produces the streaks in the image. These streaks really make it look like this football is flying through the air.