| Title: | New insights into the photo-degraded polystyrene microplastic: Effect on the release of volatile organic compounds |
| Author(s): | Wu X; Chen X; Jiang R; You J; Ouyang G; |
| Address: | "Guangdong Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution and Health, School of Environment, Jinan University, Guangzhou 511443, China. Guangdong Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution and Health, School of Environment, Jinan University, Guangzhou 511443, China. Electronic address: jiangrf5@jnu.edu.cn. KLGHEI of Environment and Energy Chemistry, School of Chemistry, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China; Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Emergency Test for Dangerous Chemicals, Guangdong Institute of Analysis (China National Analytical Center Guangzhou), Guangzhou 510070, China; Chemistry College, Center of Advanced Analysis and Gene Sequencing, Zhengzhou University, Kexue Avenue 100, Zhengzhou 450001, China" |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2022.128523 |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1873-3336 (Electronic) 0304-3894 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Excessive use of plastics leads to the ubiquity of plastic waste in the environment. Weathering can cause changes in the properties of plastics and lead to the release of various chemicals especially the volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Possible photodegradation pathway of polystyrene (PS) microplastics (MPs) was proposed and verified by the detection of VOCs. Headspace solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME) was employed to investigate the release behavior of VOCs from PS MPs exposed to simulated ultraviolet (UV). Results indicated that although the physicochemical properties of the PS MPs showed no significantly change after UV-irradiation, a variety of toxic VOCs, such as benzene, toluene, and phenol were detected from the irradiated MPs. UV irradiation progressively enhanced the release amount of VOCs with total concentration up to 66 mug g(-1) after 30 d of exposure, about 2.4 times higher than that stored in the darkness (27 mug g(-1)). Some compounds (e.g., benzene and toluene) showed an upward trend over irradiation time, while others (e.g., styrene and 2-propenylbenzene) reduced over time. Results also found that the size of MPs could affect the release amounts but without consistent pattern for different VOCs detected in the headspace of the vial. In general, current study provided a new insight on the photo-aging process of MPs" |
| Keywords: | Benzene *Microplastics Plastics Polystyrenes Toluene *Volatile Organic Compounds Hs-spme MPs Photodegradation mechanism UV exposure VOCs; |
| Notes: | "MedlineWu, Xinyan Chen, Xinlv Jiang, Ruifen You, Jing Ouyang, Gangfeng eng Netherlands 2022/03/13 J Hazard Mater. 2022 Jun 5; 431:128523. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2022.128523. Epub 2022 Feb 24" |
