Physical and Chemical Characterisation of Nanoplastic Aerosol

Physical and Chemical Characterisation of Nanoplastic Aerosol Peter J. Wlasits1, and Paul M. Winkler11 Faculty of Physics, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria Mass production of plastic products has led to an environmental problem on global scale. Consequently, an increasing number of studies has investigated the impact of micro- and nanoplastics on the environment in recent years (e. g. Amobonye et al., 2021). As a consequence of their small sizes, nanoplastic particles undergo long range atmospheric transport and deposit in remote regions (Materić et al., 2021; 2022). Hence, measurement techniques capable of accurately detecting nanoplastic aerosol are urgently needed. The presented project, funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) [10.55776/PAT5114323], relies on the controlled generation of nanoplastic particles from gas-to-particle conversion (Wlasits et al., 2022). The aforementioned generation method enables process level studies under well-defined laboratory conditions. Accordingly, nanoplastic aerosols will be generated by exposing selected macroplastics to thermal stress in a tube furnace (Wlasits et al., 2022). Aerosol particles will then be size selected using a differential mobility analyser and subsequently fed into detectors for physical and chemical analysis. The chemical composition of the generated particles will be investigated using an atmospheric pressure interface time-of-flight mass spectrometer, capable of analysing particles of both polarities simultaneously. Prior to mass analysis particles will undergo thermal decomposition and ionisation. Physical characterisation will be performed using the Size Analysing Nuclei Counter (SANC), an expansion-type condensation particle counter providing nucleation probabilities as a function of the saturation ratio (Wlasits et al., 2023). In summary, the outlined project is based on a comprehensive experimental approach combining physical and chemical information about nanoplastic aerosol. New insights on the influence of nanoplastic particles on cloud formation will be gained and the potential use of condensation techniques for nanoplastic detection will be investigated.  ReferencesAmobonye, A., Bhagwat, P. , Raveendran, S., Singh, S., and Pillai, S., Microbiol., 12, 768297, 2021, doi:10.3389/fmicb.2021.768297.Materić, D., Ludewig, E., Brunner, D., Röckmann, T., and Holzinger, R., Environ. Pollut., 288, 117697, 2021, doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2021.117697.Materić, D., Kjær, H. A., Vallelonga, P., Tison, J.-L., Röckmann, T., and Holzinger, R., Environ. Res., 208, 112741, 2022, doi:10.1016/j.envres.2022.112741.Wlasits, P. J., Stoellner, A., Lattner, G., Maggauer, K., and Winkler, P. M., Aerosol Sci. Technol., 56 (2), 176–185, 2022, doi:10.1080/02786826.2021.1998339.Wlasits, P. J., Konrat, R., and Winkler, P. M., Environ. Sci. Technol., 57 (4), 1584–1591, 2023, doi:10.1021/acs.est.2c07643.