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Influence of environmental and biological macromolecules on aggregation kinetics of nanoplastics in aquatic systems
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Researchers studied how natural macromolecules like humic acid, alginate, and proteins influence the clumping behavior of polystyrene nanoplastics in water. They found that these macromolecules generally stabilized nanoplastics in sodium chloride solutions but caused them to aggregate in calcium chloride solutions, with effects varying by pH. The findings suggest that the environmental fate and transport of nanoplastics in natural waters depends heavily on the surrounding organic molecules and water chemistry.
Nanoplastics derived from degradation of micro- or macroplastics are emerging contaminants in aquatic environments, where their fate and transport as well as toxicity are affected by aggregation. This study employed time-resolved dynamic light scattering to investigate the aggregation kinetics of polystyrene nanoplastics (PSNPs) in the presence of four macromolecules (sodium alginate (SA), bovine serum albumin (BSA), extracellular polymeric substance (EPS), and Suwannee River humic acid (HA)) in solutions containing monovalent (NaCl) and divalent (CaCl) salts at different pH. Our results showed that the macromolecules enhanced PSNP stability in NaCl solutions but destabilized PSNPs in CaCl solutions at pH 6. In NaCl solutions, macromolecules inhibited PSNP aggregation due to steric hindrance originated from macromolecular layer adsorbed on PSNPs. The strongest stabilization effect was observed for BSA having the greatest hydrodynamic adsorption layer thickness of 21.9 nm, followed by HA, EPS, and SA. In CaCl solutions, SA significantly destabilized PSNPs via alginate bridging with Ca, which enhanced with concentrations of SA and CaCl. The destabilization effects of other three macromolecules in CaCl solutions were governed by the interplay among molecular bridging, charge screening, and steric hindrance. An increased pH in NaCl or CaCl solutions containing macromolecules all stabilized PSNPs due to elevated electrostatic repulsion, except that SA destabilized PSNPs in CaCl solutions via enhanced molecular bridging. The stabilization effect of macromolecules may also compete with the destabilization effect under seawater condition. This study suggested that PSNP aggregation in aquatic environments could be strongly affected by macromolecules and solution chemistry.
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