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Infiltration and Transport of PVC microplastic particles in saturated quartz sand columns
Summary
Researchers investigated the infiltration and transport behaviour of 125-200 micrometre PVC microplastic fragments through saturated quartz sand columns under varying flow rates, using morphological descriptors to characterise particle movement. The study aimed to understand how particle shape and flow conditions influence microplastic retention and breakthrough in subsurface porous media, relevant to groundwater contamination risk assessment.
Since microplastics are a perversive pollutant in all environmental compart-ments, posing a risk to the subsurface and entering the aquatic environment via erosion pathways, it is necessary to understand their transport behav-iours. The morphological descriptors used to characterize microplastic parti-cles are usually highly subjective. This research aims to understand and characterize microplastic movement based on their morphological descrip-tion. The infiltration and transport behaviour of 125 – 200 μm Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic fragments in saturated quartz sand (1.6 – 2.0 mm) columns were investigated. Retention profiles at different ultrapure water flow rates (2.0 – 3.5 ml/min) were compared and analysed. At the beginning and end of each column test, the microplastic particles were carefully exam-ined, identified, and quantified by light microscopy. Each particle was char-acterized by dimensionless 3D morphological descriptors that can describe any particle shape. The results indicated that the transport distance of micro-plastic particles increased as their diameter decreased. PVC microplastic par-ticles, whose morphology was more 1-dimensional, were more susceptible to fragmentation within the column, promoting infiltration. Microplastic degra-dation into fragments appeared to significantly influence movement. This study offers preliminary insights into infiltration depths and morphology-dependent fragmentation of secondary microplastics in saturated coarse sand, highlighting the limitations of 2D projected images conventionally used to study the transport of microplastics.
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