Abstract: As an emerging pollutant, microplastics are widely detected in oceans, rivers, land, air and soil. For a better understanding of the research situation of microplastics in fresh water, the sampling and pretreatment methods for microplastics in freshwater system are expounded, and the development direction is discussed. The sampling objects includes water, sediment and aquatic organisms. In the extraction of microplastics, the advantages and shortcomings of different extraction solutions and extraction methods are compared. In terms of sample digestion, the strengths and weaknesses of different digestion solutions and digestion methods are analyzed. Last but not the least, the development trend and work prospect in microplastics analysis methods in future are put forward which is expected to offer reference for the development of sampling and pretreatment technology of microplastics in freshwater environment.

Key words: microplastics, novel pollutant, freshwater system, sampling method, pretreatment method