Defining Irregular Microplastics: A Machine Learning Approach for Morphometric Characterization
Abstract
1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Sample Collection and Image Acquisition
2.2. Data Processing, Extraction, and Evaluating Irregularity Descriptors
2.2.1. Dataset Creation and Feature Extraction
2.2.2. DT Modeling
3. Results
4. Discussion
5. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
References
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| Index | Measurements/Formula | Morphological Significance |
|---|---|---|
| Long diameter | b | The longest line that can be drawn through the object. |
| Short diameter | a | The longest line that can be drawn through the object whilst remaining perpendicular with the major-axis. |
| Aspect ratio | The aspect ratio of the shape’s fitted ellipse. | The extension of contours. It can also represent the extent to which the contour is “pushed out”. |
| Circularity | It is defined as the degree to which the particle is similar to a circle. Calculated on a scale from 0 to 1.0, where a value closer to 1 indicates a perfectly circular shape. | |
| Roundness | Describes the sharpness of particle edges. | |
| Solidity | The measurement of the overall concavity of a particle, defined as the actual particle area divided by the convex hull area, where values approaching 1 signify higher solidity | |
| Rectangularity | The polygon divided by the area of the smallest rectangle that encompasses the original contour, with values near 1 indicating a more rectangular shape. | |
| Perimeter-to-area ratio | Describe the complexity of a particle shape. As a simple and intuitive indicator, this ratio directly reflects the degree of tortuosity and irregularity of a particle’s edge. The higher the ratio, the more complex the particle morphology. | |
| Vertex count | The number of vertices calculated based on polygon fitting | |
| Boyce-Clark index | Where r = the radials extending outward from a central node, and n = the number of radials used. The shape index for a circle is 0. All other geometric forms have shape indices greater than 0. |
| Accuracy Metric | Formula | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Precision | True positives/(True positives + False positives) | Measures the correctness of the model’s positive predictions by calculating the proportion of true positives among all the positive predictions it makes. |
| Recall | True positives/(True positives + False negatives) | Indicates the model’s effectiveness in accurately detecting all instances of the actual positive class. |
| F1-score | 2 × (Precision × Recall)/(Precision + Recall) | Provides a comprehensive assessment of the model by computing the harmonic mean of precision and recall. |
| Feature Name | Spherical | Fibrous | Irregular |
|---|---|---|---|
| Circularity | 0.768 ± 0.004–1.00 | 0–0.388 ± 0.004 | 0.388 ± 0.004–0.768 ± 0.004 |
| Roundness | 0.752 ± 0.06–1.00 | 0–0.248 ± 0.01 | 0.248 ± 0.01–0.752 ± 0.06 |
| Perimeter-to-area ratio | 0–1.71 ± 0.2 | 1.71 ± 0.2–11.608 ± 1.39 | >11.608 ± 1.39 |
| Class | Precision | Recall | F1-Score | Support |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spherical | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 7.00 |
| Fibrous | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 10.00 |
| Irregular | 1.00 | 0.89 | 0.94 | 9.00 |
| True/Pred | Spherical | Fibrous | Irregular |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spherical | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| Fibrous | 0 | 10 | 0 |
| Irregular | 1 | 0 | 8 |
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Yin, X.; Jing, Y.; Zeng, P.; Li, C.; Shi, Y.; Zhang, J.; Yan, L.; Sun, W.; Pan, G. Defining Irregular Microplastics: A Machine Learning Approach for Morphometric Characterization. Microplastics 2026, 5, 80. https://doi.org/10.3390/microplastics5020080
Yin X, Jing Y, Zeng P, Li C, Shi Y, Zhang J, Yan L, Sun W, Pan G. Defining Irregular Microplastics: A Machine Learning Approach for Morphometric Characterization. Microplastics. 2026; 5(2):80. https://doi.org/10.3390/microplastics5020080
Chicago/Turabian StyleYin, Xingru, Yi Jing, Peiwen Zeng, Congcong Li, Yue Shi, Jinyi Zhang, Lingjun Yan, Wei Sun, and Guowei Pan. 2026. "Defining Irregular Microplastics: A Machine Learning Approach for Morphometric Characterization" Microplastics 5, no. 2: 80. https://doi.org/10.3390/microplastics5020080
APA StyleYin, X., Jing, Y., Zeng, P., Li, C., Shi, Y., Zhang, J., Yan, L., Sun, W., & Pan, G. (2026). Defining Irregular Microplastics: A Machine Learning Approach for Morphometric Characterization. Microplastics, 5(2), 80. https://doi.org/10.3390/microplastics5020080

