Mechanical formation of micro- and nano-plastic materials for environmental studies in agricultural ecosystems

Astner, Anton F.; Hayes, Douglas G.; O’Neill, Hugh; Evans, Barbara R.; Pingali, Sai Venkatesh; Urban, Volker S.; Young, Timothy M.

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.06.241

Cited by 113 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…value [30]. The absence of variance for the "excess" oscillations with ex situ stirring and the addition of vermiculite suggests the smaller-sized subpopulation of NPs are well dispersed in water and are unlikely to form agglomerates ( Fig 3A and Table 1).…”

Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 97%

“…NPs were prepared from PBAT film according to the optimized procedure [30]. PBAT specimen (~1.0 g), cut from BDMs films to dimensions of~120 mm (machine direction) x 20 mm (cross direction), were presoaked in water (800 mL) for 5 min, recovered and transferred to a cryogenic container filled with liquid nitrogen (200 mL) and soaked for 5 min.…”

Section: Production Of Npsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…After blending, the slurries were filtered under vacuum through a paper membrane filter (1 μm mesh) using a Büchner funnel apparatus and then air-dried for 48 h to reduce moisture to < 1%. The resulting MP fragments were possessed d p of 1.47 ± 0.45 mm (ImageJ analysis of stereomicrographs) [30]. The cryogenically embrittled PBAT MPs were fed to a rotary mill (Model 3383-L10 Wiley Mini Mill, fitted with screen, Arthur H. Thomas Co., Philadelphia, PA, USA) by using sieve sizes of 20 mesh (840 μm) for the first pass and 60 mesh (250 μm) for the second pass through the mill.…”

Section: Production Of Npsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The resultant particles were vacuum dried at 40˚C for 48 h and stored in an air-sealed container. The dried NPs possessed an average d p of 366.0±0.65 nm according to dynamic light scattering (DLS) analysis (bimodal distribution: d p values of 536.8±151.8 nm and 63.8±13.7 nm, with each subpopulation's distribution described by a two-parameter Weibull distribution) [30], and were used for SANS/USANS sample preparation. The NPs' zeta potential (in H 2 O) was determined to be -22±3.6 mV through employment of a Zetasizer Nano instrument (Malvern Instruments, Malvern, UK) using a Smoluchowski model.…”

Section: Production Of Npsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Also, MPs formed from BDMs may be a source of terrestrial NPs [30]. NPs They have not been detected in soils to date, mainly due to the absence of a robust analytical approach, although they are likely to occur [11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of soil particles and convective transport on dispersion and aggregation of nanoplastics via small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) and ultra SANS (USANS)

et al. 2020

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Terrestrial nanoplastics (NPs) pose a serious threat to agricultural food production systems due to the potential harm of soil-born micro-and macroorganisms that promote soil fertility and ability of NPs to adsorb onto and penetrate into vegetables and other crops. Very little is known about the dispersion, fate and transport of NPs in soils. This is because of the challenges of analyzing terrestrial NPs by conventional microscopic techniques due to the low concentrations of NPs and absence of optical transparency in these systems. Herein, we investigate the potential utility of small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) and Ultra SANS (USANS) to probe the agglomeration behavior of NPs prepared from polybutyrate adipate terephthalate, a prominent biodegradable plastic used in agricultural mulching, in the presence of vermiculite, an artificial soil. SANS with the contrast matching technique was used to study the aggregation of NPs co-dispersed with vermiculite in aqueous media. We determined the contrast match point for vermiculite was 66% D 2 O / 33% H 2 O. At this condition, the signal for vermiculite was~50-100%-fold lower that obtained using neat H 2 O or D 2 O as solvent. According to SANS and USANS, smaller-sized NPs (50 nm) remained dispersed in water and did not undergo size reduction or self-agglomeration, nor formed agglomerates with vermiculite. Larger-sized NPs (300-1000 nm) formed self-agglomerates and agglomerates with vermiculite, demonstrating their significant adhesion with soil. However, employment of convective transport (simulated by ex situ stirring of the slurries prior to SANS and USANS analyses) reduced the self-agglomeration, demonstrating weak NP-NP interactions. Convective transport also led to size reduction of the larger-sized NPs. Therefore, this study demonstrates the potential utility of SANS and USANS with contrast matching technique for investigating behavior of terrestrial NPs in complex soil systems.

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Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Production Of Npsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Production Of Npsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Production Of Npsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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