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Microplastics influence the fate of antibiotics in freshwater environments: Biofilm formation and its effect on adsorption behavior
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Researchers found that biofilm formation on microplastics in freshwater environments enhanced antibiotic adsorption by 24-51%, with potential pathogens detected in all biofilm communities across PVC, PA, and HDPE plastics.
Microplastics (MPs) are substrates available for biofilms colonization in natural water environments. The biofilms formation may enhance the ability of MPs to adsorb harmful contaminants. Herein, we investigated the biofilms formation of three different MPs (PVC, PA and HDPE) in simulated natural environment, and observed the chemical structure, charge property, hydrophobicity and other properties of MPs affect microbial biomass and community composition. More importantly, potential pathogens were found in all three MPs biofilms. Furthermore, the adsorption capacities of original MPs and biological aging MPs for norfloxacin (NOR) was compared. HDPE has the largest adsorption capacity for NOR, while PA has the smallest adsorption capacity for NOR. It was concluded that the formation of biofilms enhanced the adsorption of NOR by 50.60 %, 24.17 % and 46.02 % for PVC, PA and HDPE, respectively. In addition, hydrogen-bond interaction, electrostatic interaction and hydrophobic interaction were found to dominate the adsorption of NOR by MPs. Our study contributed to improve the understanding of the interactions between aging MPs and contaminants in the natural water environments, and provided essential information for ecological risk assessment of MPs.
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Researchers characterized microplastics in wastewater and investigated their interactions with antibiotics, examining how microplastic surfaces adsorb antibiotic compounds and the implications for antibiotic transport and dissemination in wastewater treatment systems.
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Researchers systematically investigated how three common microplastic types adsorb tetracycline antibiotics. The study found that polystyrene had the highest adsorption capacity at 178.57 micrograms per gram, followed by PVC and polyethylene, and that PVC and polystyrene strongly retained the antibiotics with minimal desorption, raising concerns about compound pollution from microplastic-antibiotic combinations in the environment.
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Aged microplastics were found to sorb antibiotics from fresh and saltwater, with aging processes altering the surface properties of the plastic and increasing antibiotic binding capacity in some cases. The adsorption of antibiotics onto aged microplastics could facilitate their transport and delivery to aquatic organisms, potentially contributing to antibiotic resistance in environmental bacteria.
Research digests by email
When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.