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Study on Copper Desorption Behavior from Microplastic Particles in Different Media
Summary
"Researchers studied how copper (Cu(II)) desorbs from polystyrene microplastics in three different media—pure water, artificial seawater, and simulated gastric fluid—finding that desorption was fastest in gastric fluid, meaning microplastics release more heavy metal contamination once ingested. This reveals that microplastics acting as Trojan horse carriers for heavy metals pose a heightened risk inside the digestive systems of warm-blooded animals, including humans."
Microplastics can act as carriers of pollutants in the aquatic environment and have the potential to absorb and release heavy metal pollutants. In this study, copper (Cu(II)) was chosen as the classical pollutant, mainly investigated the desorption behavior of the heavy metal Cu(II) from polystyrene (PS) microplastics in Milli-Q water, artificial seawater, and simulated gastric fluid. The results showed that the desorption occurred rapidly, within a few hours or even minutes in different media. The desorption of copper was consistent with pseudo-second-order model and the Freundlich isothermal model. The desorption amounts were in the order of simulated gastric fluid > artificial seawater > Milli-Q water. In addition, hysteresis was obviously detected in the adsorption/desorption of Cu(II) in the three environments media. Moreover, the influence of adsorption medium is greater than the desorption medium on desorption. Increasing the temperature would improve the desorption ability. There was a higher risk of exposure in warm-blooded organisms than in cold-blooded organisms. In addition, the presence of sediment particles had a significant effect on desorption, which would reduce the desorption ratio. This study reveals the migration behavior of heavy metals carried by microplastics, which provides a scientific basis for assessing ecological risks and studying the migration and transformation patterns of contaminants.