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Polystyrene nanosized dots: structure and optical properties
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Researchers dissolved commercial polystyrene (Styrofoam) in chloroform and irradiated the resulting colloid with gamma rays to produce nanoplastic dots, then characterized their structural and optical properties for use as model particles in environmental and biological studies.
Nowadays, modern civilization uses around 30% of objects that are made of the plastics. Disposed plastic can be found in water, in soil, in the air and even in living organisms. Plastic enters living organisms through water and food. Thus, plastics used can harm human health. In everyday life, polystyrene (PS) is one of the most used plastics that is hard to recycle. In this research, the structural and chemical properties of PS based micro and nanoplastics were studied. Namely, commercially available PS (Styrofoam) was dissolved in chloroform. The obtained colloid was irradiated by gamma rays at doses of 300, 400, 500 and 600 kGy, respectively. Thus, PS based micro and nanosized particles were synthesized and further characterized by different techniques. Nanomechanical and nano-electrical properties were investigated by using atomic force microscope (AFM) in order to determine Young’s modulus of elasticity and charge distribution of PS particles synthesized respectively. Particle size distribution, height and shape of PS particles were determined by AFM as well. To check chemical composition, different techniques were used: Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Raman spectroscopy. The optical properties of the samples were studied by using photoluminescence (PL) and ultraviolet–visible (UV–Vis) spectroscopy. The PS particles have a size from 183 to 112 nm. They are positively and negative charged depending on the applied irradiation dose. PS particles irradiated at 600 kGy have doughnut like shape and their Young’s modulus of elasticity is around 400 MPa. Chemical analysis conducted by FTIR shows that all samples are composed of C, O, and H atoms dominantly with C-H, C=O, C-C and C-O characteristic bonds. Partial carbonization of PS nanoparticles is established from the Raman spectra, which is also confirmed by AFM. In the UV-Vis spectra of all PL particles we noticed pick at 260 nm. PL spectra of PS particles irradiated at 600 kGy show that these spectra have emission-excitation dependence.
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