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Interactions between Nanoplastics and Antibiotics: Implications for Nanoplastics Aggregation in Aquatic Environments
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This study examined how common antibiotics interact with nanoplastics in water, finding that antibiotics can cause nanoplastics to clump together into larger particles. The effect depends on water acidity, plastic type, and how much organic matter is present. These interactions could change how nanoplastics behave in the environment, potentially affecting where they accumulate and how toxic they become in waterways that supply drinking water.
Nanoplastics and antibiotics frequently co-occur in aquatic environments, and their interactions could alter nanoplastics' surface properties, affecting nanoplastics aggregation, fate, and ecotoxicity. However, the mechanisms driving antibiotics-induced nanoplastics aggregation under environmentally relevant conditions remain unclear. This study investigated the effects of ciprofloxacin (CIP) and sulfamethoxazole (SMX) on the aggregation of four environmentally relevant nanoplastics (pristine and aged polystyrene, polyethylene, and polypropylene). At pH 5.0, both CIP and SMX significantly promoted nanoplastics aggregation, with CIP being more potent. CIP enhanced nanoplastics aggregation through charge shielding driven by electrostatic attraction, hydrogen bonding (HB), and charge-assisted HB (CAHB), whereas SMX promoted aggregation solely through molecular bridging involving HB and CAHB. At pH 7.0, only CIP facilitated aggregation, while neither antibiotic induced aggregation at pH 9.0. Aged polystyrene aggregated more readily than pristine polystyrene due to increased surface functional groups. Polyethylene and polypropylene showed weaker aggregation due to fewer surface functional groups. High organic matter (OM) levels (1.65 mg/L TOC) inhibited antibiotics-induced aggregation, whereas low OM levels (16.5 μg/L TOC) were more conducive. These findings highlight that antibiotic characteristics, pH, OM levels, plastic types, and environmental aging collectively influence nanoplastics aggregation, and improve the understanding of the fate and risk of nanoplastics in natural waters.
More Papers Like This
Interactionsbetween Nanoplastics and Antibiotics:Implications for Nanoplastics Aggregation in Aquatic Environments
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Researchers studied how the antibiotics ciprofloxacin and tetracycline interact with polystyrene nanoplastics in aquatic environments, finding that these drugs alter nanoplastic surface properties and aggregation behavior under environmentally relevant conditions.
Nanoplastics in Water: Role of Minerals, Antibiotics, and Organic Matter in Their Environmental Fate and Process
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Tiny plastic particles in water (nanoplastics) don't just float around alone—they team up with minerals, antibiotics, and natural organic matter in ways that change whether they sink to the bottom, stay suspended, or carry pollutants like antibiotics along with them. This matters because these interactions affect how far nanoplastics travel in rivers and lakes, whether they build up in sediment where fish and other organisms live, and whether they act as "carriers" that ferry antibiotics deeper into ecosystems—all factors that ultimately shape human exposure through drinking water and food.
Adsorption interactions between typical microplastics and enrofloxacin: Relevant contributions to the mechanism
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This study investigated how common microplastics (polyethylene, PVC, and polystyrene) absorb the antibiotic enrofloxacin from the environment. The researchers found that microplastics can effectively bind antibiotics through multiple chemical mechanisms, with the strength of binding depending on water conditions like acidity. This is concerning because microplastics carrying antibiotics could transport them into the food chain, potentially contributing to antibiotic resistance and affecting human health.
Combined pollution of tetracyclines and microplastics in the aquatic environment: Insights into the occurrence, interaction mechanisms and effects
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This review examines how microplastics and tetracycline antibiotics interact in water environments, since microplastics can absorb and carry antibiotics on their surfaces. Factors like pH, heavy metals, and organic matter in water influence how tightly antibiotics bind to microplastics, and the combined pollution is more harmful to aquatic life than either pollutant alone. This is relevant to human health because these microplastic-antibiotic combinations can enter drinking water supplies and promote antibiotic resistance.
Interaction of Microplastics with Antibiotics in Aquatic Environment: Distribution, Adsorption, and Toxicity
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This review examines how microplastics and antibiotics interact in waterways, finding that microplastics can absorb antibiotics from the water and change their availability and toxicity to aquatic organisms. Critically, microplastics also provide surfaces where antibiotic resistance genes can accumulate and spread among bacteria. This is concerning for human health because it means microplastics in water could be accelerating the spread of antibiotic-resistant infections.
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