Environmental Microplastic Particles vs. Engineered Plastic Microparticles—A Comparative Review

Kefer, Simone; Miesbauer, Oliver; Langowski, Horst‐Christian

doi:10.3390/polym13172881

Cited by 22 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 207 publications

(369 reference statements)

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“…MP found in the environment however are reported often as fragments or fibres [22]. Also, recovery rates of smaller particles need to be investigated, a majority MP found in the environment are < 1 mm [12]. Until (1) standardized sediment sampling equipment for MP is available and (2) to cover a sample area and depth as large as possible as well as (3) to yield enough material for different kinds of analysis we recommend to use a grab sampler in combination with a simple corer in coarse silt, fine sand and medium sand sediments.…”

Section: Recommendation Of Sediment Samplers For Monitoring Mp In Sed...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of microplastics sediment sampling techniques—efficiency of common methods and new approaches

et al. 2022

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Common sediment samplers for microplastics (MP) such as grab samplers or corers are limited to certain grain sizes and known to cause disruption of sediments which results in a loss of fine and low-density particles such as MP. However, this loss has not been quantified yet and its occurrence is commonly tolerated during MP sediment sampling. In the present study we evaluate the recovery of MP of various common sediment samplers used in most recent studies. The samplers were tested on a model plant simulating a riverine environment with MP spiked sediments. Also, we investigated the feasibility of less frequently used freeze coring. The results of this study suggest that a combination of common methods is crucial in order to sufficiently evaluate a sampling site until standardized MP samplers for sediments are available. Freeze coring indicates a promising potential to monitor MP in river sediments in the future but is costly and should be optimized for regular field sampling campaigns. Graphical Abstract

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Section: Recommendation Of Sediment Samplers For Monitoring Mp In Sed...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of microplastics sediment sampling techniques—efficiency of common methods and new approaches

et al. 2022

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“…23,24 However, pristine microplastics differ significantly from microplastics found in the environment. 25 First, the characterization of environmental microplastics shows that they are mostly irregular and polydisperse. 25 Apart from fibers, microplastics in the environment rarely exhibit a spherical shape and are more commonly found to have a grain-like shape.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…25 First, the characterization of environmental microplastics shows that they are mostly irregular and polydisperse. 25 Apart from fibers, microplastics in the environment rarely exhibit a spherical shape and are more commonly found to have a grain-like shape. 25 Environmental microplastics are subjected to ageing and degradation in addition to shape differences.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ageing Affects the Mechanical Interaction between Microplastics and Lipid Bilayers

Fleury

Baulin

2023

Preprint

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Plastic pellets are the building blocks and pre-production form of many plastic products. Exposure to oxygen and sunlight leads to oxidation and photodegradation of the pellets, which results in a visible change in color. We investigate the effect of pellet-derived microplastics' aging on their mechanical interaction with lipid bilayers. For that purpose, polyethylene pellets were collected at the beach La Pineda near Tarragona, Spain. Pellets were sorted by chemical composition and a yellowing index, which was used as an indicator of aging. The hydrophilicity of the pellets was estimated through contact angle measurements. We produced microplastics from these pellets by grinding and filtering. Then, microplastics were dispersed around a free-standing bilayer formed in a 3D microfluidic chip to study interactions between microplastics and lipid bilayers. Our findings indicate that as the microplastics aged, the bilayer was stretched more significantly due to its increased adhesive interaction with the lipid bilayer. Interestingly, our theoretical model shows that the extracted adhesive interaction increases linearly with the measured pellet contact angle (e.g., pellet hydrophilicity). These findings raise concerns about the toxic risks that aged microplastics may pose to living organisms.

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“…Although their biological effects are still a hotly active area of research, aqueous microplastic (defined by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Organization as plastic particles below 5 mm in size) pollution is a topic of grave environmental concern worldwide. 11,153 Originally thought to be biologically inert, an increasing number of studies show that microplastic particles on the nanometer and micrometer scale may, in fact, have deleterious effects on aquatic life, and, likely, on human beings as well. [154][155][156][157][158][159] Increasingly small microplastic particles possess an additional hazard in that they are able to enter cells and interfere with vital cellular functions.…”

Section: Co 2 Capturing Release and Simple Low-energy Concentration O...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Solid, aqueous, and gaseous: functional materials and advancements to reduce pollution in three forms

Siercks¹

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Growing environmental concerns require new and novel materials to combat the glut of anthropogenic pollution produced. Solid waste polymer pollution chokes the planet and, concerningly, has been found to generate a new class of pollutant in microplastics; these microplastics, and also waste pharmaceuticals and dyes, accumulate in our water with deleterious effects on animal life. Simultaneously, CO2 and other greenhouse gases threaten us with climate change causing loss of habitable land, destroyed ecosystems, and prevalent extreme weather events. For a sustainable future, pollution in all three forms must be combatted. In this dissertation, I present works related to the pursuit of this goal. In all cases, I have striven to produce research and materials that are creative and multifunctional. In as much as possible, I have given thought to the feasible real-world applicability of this work. Firstly, I have produced and characterized an extensive series of activated carbons using waste plastics in proportions that mimic those found in real world mixed plastic recycling. The carbons were activated by tube furnace pyrolysis at three different temperatures with both common and atypical activating agents. The materials were rigorously characterized and their abilities to adsorb both three aqueous compounds - a cationic dye, an anionic dye, and a neutral pharmaceutical - and gaseous CO2 were investigated. It was found that the materials were extremely diverse with materials activated with KOH and citric acid being the most performant at capturing CO2 (1.86 and 1.91 mmol CO2/g sorbent, respectively). As far as the adsorption of aqueous pharmaceuticals or dyes is concerned, the materials tested displayed differing capacities for each adsorbate that appeared mostly independent of surface area and activating agent. For cationic methylene blue (MB), Sodium Citrate-600 was the most performant, capturing a maximum of 89.59 mg/g; for anionic methyl orange (MO), Zinc Chloride-500 performed best and captured a maximum of 123.8 mg/g; for neutral tetracycline (TC), Zinc Chloride-500 was again the most effective and captured a maximum of 189.7 mg/g. Further, a series of amine-loaded silica materials were created using a variety of silica supports (SBA-15, PE-MCM-41, COK-19, HPS, and fumed silica) and one amine (Jeffamine T-403) to elucidate the most crucial support property on the overall CO2 capacity of the loaded material. Results suggest that surface area is the most important predictor of CO2 capacity for these materials. It was also found that pore expanded MCM-41 performed the best, capturing 1.81 mmol CO2/g sorbent under atmospheric pressure of 100 percent CO2 at 45 degreesC. This support was additionally co-loaded with a different -- high capacity but poorly regenerating -- amine to optimize the low temperature regeneration of the material; the resultant co-loaded material displayed the favorable regenerable capacity of 2.04 mmol CO2/g sorbent under the same conditions as above. Finally, a recently published procedure for the low-cost removal of microplastics from water using calcium carbonate co-precipitation was expanded by testing the method using common polystyrene microspheres and found to be 56.59 percent and 91.66 percent effective when using 1 µm and 25 µm spheres, respectively. To add to this method, a novel procedure exploring the use of CO2 to release captured microplastics was explored. Overall, it is my hope that these works as a whole will help pave the way for the feasible reduction of pollution in solid, aqueous, and gaseous forms.

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Environmental Microplastic Particles vs. Engineered Plastic Microparticles—A Comparative Review

Cited by 22 publications

References 207 publications

Evaluation of microplastics sediment sampling techniques—efficiency of common methods and new approaches

Evaluation of microplastics sediment sampling techniques—efficiency of common methods and new approaches

Ageing Affects the Mechanical Interaction between Microplastics and Lipid Bilayers

Solid, aqueous, and gaseous: functional materials and advancements to reduce pollution in three forms

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