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Microplastic Adhesion at Secondary Minimum in Porous Media
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This paper reviews existing research on how tiny plastic particles called microplastics stick to surfaces like soil or sand. It explains that when microplastics settle at a certain distance from a surface rather than touching it directly, forces related to water layers between the particle and surface, not just standard attraction and repulsion forces, control that sticking.
Various types of microplastics (MPs) are formed by fragmentation of large plastics through mechanical, biological, chemical, and photo-oxidation degradation. The presence of MPs changes the physiochemical and biological characteristics of the ecosystem and affects the organisms, leading to hazardous impacts on the ecosystem. MPs persist in the environment and their fate and transport are commonly controlled by the polymer type, size, and surface characteristics. The initial adhesion of MPs onto solid media surfaces is generally explained by classic Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek (DLVO) theory, which describes the interactions between MPs and the solid media surfaces in terms of van der Waals and electrostatic interactions. However, the classic DLVO theory fails to explain MP attachment in the secondary minimum, and the extended DLVO theory emerges, which reconciles classic DLVO theory by including non-DLVO Lewis acid-base interactions. Lewis acid/base interactions are also called hydration forces, which are initiated by water density difference in the solvation or hydration layer. The transition from secondary minimum to primary minimum aggregation is explained by the extended DLVO theory in terms of van der Waals, electrostatic, and Lewis acid/base interactions. At the primary and secondary minima, interactions are evaluated close to the equilibrium distance, where Lewis acid/base interactions dominate.
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