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Rapid biodegradation of microplastics generated from bio-based thermoplastic polyurethane
Summary
Researchers created microplastic particles from a plant-based, biodegradable plastic (thermoplastic polyurethane) and showed that bacteria could break them down rapidly, using the plastic as their sole food source. They also demonstrated that products made from this material, including coated fabric and a phone case, visibly degraded when exposed to soil bacteria. This work suggests that switching to biodegradable plastics could help reduce the buildup of persistent microplastics in the environment.
The accumulation of microplastics in various ecosystems has now been well documented and recent evidence suggests detrimental effects on various biological processes due to this pollution. Accumulation of microplastics in the natural environment is ultimately due to the chemical nature of widely used petroleum-based plastic polymers, which typically are inaccessible to biological processing. One way to mitigate this crisis is adoption of plastics that biodegrade if released into natural environments. In this work, we generated microplastic particles from a bio-based, biodegradable thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU-FC1) and demonstrated their rapid biodegradation via direct visualization and respirometry. Furthermore, we isolated multiple bacterial strains capable of using TPU-FC1 as a sole carbon source and characterized their depolymerization products. To visualize biodegradation of TPU materials as real-world products, we generated TPU-coated cotton fabric and an injection molded phone case and documented biodegradation by direct visualization and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), both of which indicated clear structural degradation of these materials and significant biofilm formation.