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Pollutant adsorption on microplastic and its release during digestion processes
Summary
Researchers investigated how microplastics act as contaminant vectors for copper and PFAS by adsorbing these substances onto polystyrene, polypropylene, and polyethylene particles and then evaluating their release under simulated gastrointestinal conditions using the Infogest static digestion protocol. They compared adsorption and release across polymer types and particle morphologies (spherical microbeads vs. post-consumer irregular microplastics) to assess how pH, enzymes, and bile affect desorption of these contaminants.
Microplastics in the marine environment can have a high affinity for some contaminants, thereby increasing their bioavailability to biota. Organic contaminants, including PFAS, as well as metals have been shown to adsorb on microplastic surface. The main goal of this study was to better understand how microplastic particles can act as a contaminant vector, with a particular focus on copper and PFAS. The contaminants were adsorbed onto three types of polymers: polystyrene, polypropylene and polyethylene, and then put into a static digestion model using the Infogest protocol to evaluate the effect of gastrointestinal conditions on their further release. As a control environmental media (water) was used. Studies were designed to mimic the relevant conditions in the environment and digestion system. The experiments were performed on spherical microbeads and post-consumer plastic (micro- fraction of irregular size created from post-consumer items). We compared the adsorption and release results of different polymers to evaluate how pH, enzymes and bile can affect the desorption degree of these compounds. Also see: https://micro2024.sciencesconf.org/559747/document