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Nanoscale adhesion and friction behavior of individual nanoplastic particles under varying environmental conditions
Summary
Researchers used atomic force microscopy with individual nanoplastic particles attached to the probe tip to measure adhesion and friction at the nanoscale on different surfaces. The study found that adhesion and friction varied significantly depending on the substrate type and environmental conditions such as humidity and aqueous versus dry settings. Mechanically degraded nanoplastics showed slightly different adhesion and friction compared to pristine particles, indicating that environmental weathering alters how nanoplastics interact with surfaces.
Nanoplastic particles (NPs) having dimensions below 1000 nm are ubiquitously present in the environment. The detection, characterization, and understanding their interaction with other surface including human organs has become a challenge due to their minute size. In this paper, an advanced technique namely colloidal probe atomic force microscopy (CP-AFM) as fabricated by robotic nanomanipulation inside the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) chamber by attaching an individual NP at the end of the modified tip apex of an AFM cantilever, is employed to investigate the adhesion and friction of commercially available individual NPs as well as mechanically degraded NPs with different substrates. Measurements are conducted on three individuals smooth and flat substrates: silicon oxide (SiO2), mica, and highly ordered pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) in ambient atmosphere, aqueous medium, and dry nitrogen environment. We have observed significant variations in adhesion and friction for all test substrates under different environmental conditions. The friction measurement on different test substrates for individual NP convey us that friction is highly dependent on the type of substrate. Additionally, the mechanically degraded NPs show slight modification of adhesion and friction as compared to its primary NPs indicating the effect of degradation. The present methodology thus enables a detailed insight into nanoscale NPs-surface interactions and can be applied for the study of NPs from the environment such as seawater.