Insight into the characteristics and sorption behaviors of aged polystyrene microplastics through three type of accelerated oxidation processes

Xuemin Liu; Peipei Sun; Guojuan Qu; Jiana Jing; Tao Zhang; Huahong Shi; Yaping Zhao

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.124836

Insight into the characteristics and sorption behaviors of aged polystyrene microplastics through three type of accelerated oxidation processes

J Hazard Mater. 2021 Apr 5:407:124836. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.124836. Epub 2020 Dec 15.

Authors

Xuemin Liu¹, Peipei Sun¹, Guojuan Qu¹, Jiana Jing¹, Tao Zhang¹, Huahong Shi², Yaping Zhao³

Affiliations

¹ Shanghai Key Laboratory for Urban Ecological Process and Eco-Restoration, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Biotransformation of Organic Solid Waste, School of Ecological and Environmental Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Research, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China.
³ Shanghai Key Laboratory for Urban Ecological Process and Eco-Restoration, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Biotransformation of Organic Solid Waste, School of Ecological and Environmental Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China. Electronic address: ypzhao@des.ecnu.edu.cn.

PMID: 33360187
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.124836

Abstract

Ageing process can significantly alter the structural properties, environmental behaviors and potential ecotoxicity of microplastics (MPs) in water. In this study, the structural properties of aged polystyrene (PS) MPs being exposed to UV/H₂O, UV/H₂O₂ and UV/Cl₂ artificially accelerated oxidation processes and related sorption behaviors of bisphenol A (BPA) on those virgin/aged PS were investigated. The surface oxidation and hydrophilicity of aged PS were significantly increased according to infrared spectroscopy (IR) and water contact angle (CA) measurements. The differential scanning calorimetric (DSC) and gel permeation chromatography (GPC) revealed apparent degradation of aged PS especially in their amorphous domain. Obviously deteriorative BPA sorption capacity on aged PS was observed compared with that of virgin PS. The sorption rates of BPA on aged PS were accelerated and sorption of BPA shifted from partition dominant mechanism on virgin PS to the adsorption dominant mechanism through being fitted with the dual-mode sorption model. Besides, ageing in UV/Cl₂ system introduces C-Cl groups on the surface of PS which strengthen the combination with BPA through halogen bonding interaction. Salt and dissolved organic matters (DOM) in marine water may increase the BPA sorption on aged MPs due to enhanced polar interaction.

Keywords: Artificially accelerated ageing process; Bisphenol A; Microplastics; Polystyrene; Sorption.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't