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Study on the capability and characteristics of heavy metals enriched on microplastics in marine environment
Summary
Laboratory and field experiments examined heavy metal adsorption on five plastic types (PVC, PP, PE, PA, POM), finding that PVC and PP had the highest adsorption capacity for lead and manganese, with field results showing that PP adsorbed metals at concentrations orders of magnitude higher than co-adsorbed PAHs. The study provides direct comparative data on microplastic-metal interactions across polymer types in marine environments.
In this study we examined the adsorption characteristics of heavy metals on microplastic through laboratory test and field test. We demonstrated that polyvinyl chloride, polypropylene, polyethylene, polyamides and polyformaldehyde could adsorb lead, copper and cadmium in the simulating solution, and the heavy metals showed higher adsorbance on PVC and PP particles compared with PA, PE and POM. In the field experiment, the adsorption rate and concentration of heavy metals varied significantly among different plastic types and locations. The adsorbability of PP and PVC toward Pb and Mn was strongly correlated with the metal concentration in seawater. We also compared the adsorption quantity of PP to heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons which resulted in an order of magnitude within one month. During the adsorption, the surface morphology of the microplastics which were washed and corroded by seawater underwent a rough-smooth-rough changing process, and different materials had great differences.