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Monitoring the migration of additives from multiple recycled polyethylene microplastics
Summary
Researchers monitored the migration of chemical additives from multiple-recycled polyethylene microplastics, examining how repeated mechanical recycling cycles affect the release of stabilizers, antioxidants, and other polymer additives into aqueous environments.
Polimerni materijali nalaze se svuda oko nas i koriste se u raznim proizvodima prehrambene, kozmetičke, građevinske i drugih industrija, pri čemu je polietilen jedan od najčešće korištenih polimera. Dodavanjem aditiva poboljšavaju se određena svojstva polimera koja im omogućuju primjenu u različitim industrijama. S porastom globalne proizvodnje i uporabe polimernih materijala povećava se i količina plastičnog otpada. Mehaničko recikliranje često se smatra efikasnim rješenjem za njegovo smanjenje. Iako u literaturi postoji puno istraživanja koja se temelje na proučavanju polimera i njihovih svojstava, malo se njih koncentrira na to kako višestruko recikliranje utječe na otpuštanje aditiva iz plastike. Cilj ovoga rada bio je proučavanje utjecaja višestrukog recikliranja na migraciju aditiva iz polietilenske mikroplastike. U tu svrhu pripremljena su dva uzorka. Prvi uzorak se sastojao od polietilena (PE) i antioksidansa, dok se drugi uzorak sastojao od PE-a u koji su dodani antioksidansi i plastifikator. Nakon pripreme uzoraka u laboratorijskom ekstruderu provedena je simulacija pet ciklusa mehaničkog recikliranja. Nakon svakog ciklusa uzorci su usitnjeni do veličine mikroplastike. Kako bi se ustanovile promjene u strukturi, toplinskoj stabilnosti i stupnju kristalnosti uzoraka uzrokovane aditivima, provedena je karakterizacija nakon 1., 3. i 5. ciklusa recikliranja. Metode karakterizacije uključivale su infracrvenu spektroskopiju s Fourierovom transformacijom (FTIR), termogravimetrijsku analizu (TGA) i diferencijalnu pretražnu kalorimetriju (DSC). Isto tako, praćena je i migracija aditiva iz mikroplastike u vodeni medij, prilikom čega je određen sadržaj ukupnog organskog ugljika, omjer biorazgradivosti i toksičnost na organizmima Vibrio fischeri i Daphnia magna.
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