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Identification, Interaction and Detection of Microplastics on Fish Scales(Lutjanus gibbus)
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Scientists found that polyethylene microplastics adsorbed onto the scales of a reef fish, showing that microplastics can bind to the exterior surfaces of fish rather than just being ingested. This surface adsorption pathway could expose fish to chemicals carried by microplastics beyond what dietary ingestion alone would cause.
Background: Microplastics are found to be one of the major emerging contaminants in the environment. Various environmental occurrences cause the macro plastics to degrade slowly into microplastics. Microplastics present in the water bodies may enter into the fish’s body through ingestion of food and also get adsorbed onto the surface of their gills or skin. Objective: Microplastics of polyethylene were chosen to investigate their sorption capacity on fish scales. The dispersion of polyethylene microplastics was studied by using a Total Dissolved Solids meter. Using this dispersion, the sorption effect was studied, and it revealed that the microplastics had the sorption ability on the fish scales. Method: Polyethylene microplastics were chosen to investigate its sorption capacity on fish scales of Lutjanus gibbus. The sorption effect of microplastics on fish scales were performed by using polyethylene microplastics obtained by bath sonication and the concentration was studied using Total dissolved solids meter. Using polyethylene microplastics dispersion, the sorption effect was carried out on the scales of Lutjanus gibbus for ten days at 8 oC. Sorption of microplastics on fish scales were characterized by FE-SEM, FT-IR, and Raman spectroscopy. Results: Polymer sorption was confirmed by using optical microscopy and FE-SEM. FT-IR and Raman spectroscopy confirmed the existence of polyethylene microplastics on the fish scale. Moreover, polyethylene microplastics sorption studies were also studied in different pH, various concentrations of NaCl and at different time intervals. Conclusions: We have synthesized microplastics from the bulk polyethylene by NaCl solution. This study confirmed the successful sorption of polyethylene microplastics on the fish scale. Our study revealed that marine water may be a suitable medium to facilitate the polymer sorption on aquatic animals/organisms.
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