Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Enhanced Photoagingof Functionalized Nanoplasticsby Cadmium Ions and Corresponding Diverse Transport Behaviors of Productsin Porous Media: Mechanisms and Modeling

Researchers demonstrated that cadmium ions accelerate the photoaging of polystyrene nanoplastics — including carboxyl-modified, amino-modified, and sulfonate variants — and showed that the resulting aging products exhibit distinct transport behaviors in porous media through mechanisms they characterized and modeled.

2025 Figshare
Article Tier 2

Interactions of pristine and aged nanoplastics with heavy metals: Enhanced adsorption and transport in saturated porous media

Researchers found that UV-aged nanoplastics had greater capacity to adsorb and transport lead and cadmium through porous media compared to pristine nanoplastics, due to increased oxygen-containing surface groups that enhance heavy metal binding.

2022 Journal of Hazardous Materials 81 citations
Article Tier 2

Promoted photodegradation of cadmium pigment-embedded microplastics: Role of reactive microenvironment

Researchers studied how cadmium pigments embedded in microplastics influence their photodegradation behavior in polystyrene, polypropylene, and polyethylene. The study found that the reactive microenvironment generated by cadmium pigments significantly accelerated plastic degradation, particularly in polystyrene, and that this accelerated breakdown correlated with increased release of toxic cadmium ions into the surrounding water.

2026 Journal of Hazardous Materials
Article Tier 2

Progress on the photo aging mechanism of microplastics and related impact factors in water environment

This review examined the photo-aging mechanisms of microplastics in aquatic environments, finding that solar UV radiation drives oxidation reactions that alter surface chemistry, fragment particles further, and enhance their capacity to adsorb and release co-occurring pollutants.

2021 Chinese Science Bulletin (Chinese Version) 9 citations
Article Tier 2

Role of UV radiation and oxidation on polyethylene micro- and nanoplastics: impacts on cadmium sorption, bioaccumulation, and toxicity in fish intestinal cells

This study examined how UV aging and oxidation change the way polyethylene micro and nanoplastics interact with cadmium, a toxic heavy metal, in fish gut cells. While the plastics actually reduced cadmium absorption and toxicity in the cells, UV aging changed the particles' surface chemistry and caused them to clump together differently. The results suggest that the interaction between microplastics and heavy metals in the environment is complex and depends on how weathered the plastic is.

2024 Environmental Science and Pollution Research 17 citations
Article Tier 2

From Macro to Micro Plastics; Influence of Photo-oxidative Degradation

This study used simulated UV aging to investigate how photo-oxidative degradation of common plastics drives fragmentation from macro to micro scale, characterizing the surface property changes and structural breakdown that generate microplastic particles in the environment.

2023 Kemija u industriji 4 citations
Article Tier 2

Photoaging alters the aggregation behavior of functionalized nanoplastics differently: effects of leached organic matter and surface properties changes

This study found that UV photoaging of nanoplastics changes their surface chemistry and causes them to release organic compounds, but the downstream effect on how particles clump together (aggregation) differs markedly depending on what chemical groups are on the particle surface. This matters because aggregation behaviour controls whether nanoplastics sink or stay suspended in water, affecting which organisms are exposed and how far the particles travel.

2026 Environmental Science Nano
Article Tier 2

Sunlight mediated cadmium release from colored microplastics containing cadmium pigment in aqueous phase

Scientists examined how sunlight irradiation causes cadmium to leach from colored microplastics containing cadmium-based pigments, finding that photo-dissolution drove cadmium release in aquatic conditions and that smaller particles and longer irradiation times increased release rates.

2020 Environmental Pollution 94 citations
Article Tier 2

Study on the photoaging process and metal ion release of plastic films with two kinds of structures in marine environment: Aliphatic and aromatic polymers

Researchers simulated photoaging of aliphatic and aromatic plastic films in marine conditions, finding that aliphatic polymers degrade faster under UV light and that metal ions embedded in all plastics are released at rates correlated with polymer degradation degree rather than polymer type — following second-order kinetics driven by surface and intraparticle diffusion.

2024 Marine Pollution Bulletin 5 citations
Article Tier 2

The fate, impacts and potential risks of photoaging process of the microplastics in the aqueous environment

This review examines how ultraviolet light from sunlight causes microplastics in water to age and change their physical and chemical properties, including surface texture, chemical structure, and water-repelling ability. Researchers found that photoaged microplastics become better at carrying other pollutants and may pose greater environmental risks than fresh plastics. The study highlights that aged microplastics can also increase biological toxicity and human exposure risks compared to their original form.

2025 Journal of Contaminant Hydrology 4 citations
Article Tier 2

Chemical reactivity of weathered nanoplastics and their interactions with heavy metals

Researchers examined the chemical reactivity of weathered nanoplastics following abiotic and biotic degradation processes, finding that weathering substantially alters the surface chemistry of nanoplastics and enhances their capacity to interact with and facilitate the transformation of legacy heavy metal contaminants in the environment.

2024 Environmental Science Nano 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Oxidation and fragmentation of plastics in a changing environment; from UV-radiation to biological degradation

This review examines how plastics break down in the environment through UV radiation, weathering, and biological processes, producing smaller and smaller fragments including microplastics and nanoplastics. The breakdown process also releases chemical additives and creates particles with altered surface properties that may be more toxic than the original plastic. Understanding these degradation pathways is critical because the secondary particles produced may pose greater risks to ecosystems and human health than the larger plastic debris.

2022 The Science of The Total Environment 335 citations
Article Tier 2

Fate of polystyrene and polyethylene nanoplastics exposed to UV in water

Researchers found that UV irradiation progressively degrades polystyrene and polyethylene nanoplastics dispersed in water, causing them to become porous, fragment, and ultimately degrade completely, revealing the photochemical fate of nanoplastics in sunlit aquatic environments.

2023 Environmental Science Nano 9 citations
Article Tier 2

UVA-induced weathering of microplastics in seawater: surface property transformations and kinetics

Researchers studied how UVA radiation weathers microplastics in seawater, examining changes to surface properties and degradation rates. The study developed a model integrating an aging index with degradation kinetics, finding that UV exposure significantly transforms microplastic surface characteristics, which affects their behavior and potential ecological impact in marine environments.

2025 Frontiers in Marine Science 7 citations
Article Tier 2

Photo-oxidation of Micro- and Nanoplastics: Physical, Chemical, and Biological Effects in Environments

This review examines how sunlight breaks down micro- and nanoplastics in the environment, changing their surface properties and making them interact differently with pollutants and living organisms. Sun-aged plastic particles can become more toxic to aquatic life and affect soil microbe communities, but many questions remain about these processes under real-world conditions.

2024 Environmental Science & Technology 178 citations
Article Tier 2

Aging mechanism of microplastics with UV irradiation and its effects on the adsorption of heavy metals

Researchers aged polystyrene microplastics using UV irradiation under three conditions (air, pure water, seawater) and found that aging changed surface chemistry and increased the microplastics' capacity to adsorb heavy metals, with seawater aging producing the most pronounced surface oxidation.

2020 Journal of Hazardous Materials 852 citations
Article Tier 2

Study on the impact of photoaging on the generation of very small microplastics (MPs) and nanoplastics (NPs) and the wettability of plastic surface

Experiments using UV light to artificially age six common plastic types showed that sunlight (photoaging) accelerates the breakdown of plastics into very small microplastics and nanoplastics and makes plastic surfaces rougher and more chemically reactive. Understanding how different polymer structures respond to light aging is important for predicting which plastics will fragment fastest in the environment and generate the most hazardous small particles.

2023 Environmental Science and Pollution Research 11 citations
Article Tier 2

Investigation of Surface Alteration of Microplastics by Using UV Irradiation

UV radiation causes polystyrene and other plastic microparticles to undergo photooxidative degradation, changing their surface chemistry and potentially making them more likely to adsorb or release chemical pollutants. Understanding these weathering processes is important for predicting the environmental behavior and toxicity of microplastics.

2020 4 citations
Article Tier 2

Fragmentation of polypropylene into microplastics promoted by photo-aging; release of metals, toxicity and inhibition of biodegradability

This study showed that when polypropylene plastic ages in sunlight, it fragments into microplastics much faster and releases metal contaminants that were originally added during manufacturing. The resulting particles and chemical leachates were toxic to aquatic organisms and resistant to biodegradation, meaning aged plastics in the environment are more hazardous than fresh ones.

2024 The Science of The Total Environment 27 citations
Article Tier 2

Non-Negligible Effects of UV Irradiation on Transformation and Environmental Risks of Microplastics in the Water Environment

This review examines how UV irradiation drives photoaging of microplastics in aquatic environments, altering their surface chemistry, mechanical properties, and adsorption capacity for co-pollutants, and thereby amplifying their ecotoxicological risks beyond those of virgin plastic particles.

2021 Journal of Xenobiotics 43 citations
Article Tier 2

From Carriers to Mitigators: Environmental Aging Unexpectedly Transforms Nanoplastics into Limiters of Cadmium Bioavailability in Osteoblasts

Researchers discovered that environmentally aged nanoplastics can unexpectedly reduce cadmium toxicity in bone cells, challenging the common assumption that nanoplastics always worsen heavy metal exposure. The aged nanoplastics effectively bound cadmium ions into larger aggregates that limited cellular uptake, suggesting that environmental aging can transform nanoplastics from carriers of toxic metals into limiters of their bioavailability.

2026 Environmental Science & Technology
Article Tier 2

Contaminant release from aged microplastic

Researchers exposed recycled plastic granules of polyethylene, PVC, and polystyrene to simulated aging conditions including UV radiation and high temperatures. They found that aging significantly increased the rate at which chemical additives leached from the plastic particles into water, with UV exposure having the greatest effect. The study highlights that weathered microplastics in the environment may release harmful chemicals at much higher rates than fresh plastic materials.

2017 Environmental Chemistry 285 citations
Article Tier 2

Photoreactive Bromide Ions as Overlooked Regulators of Nanoplastic Surface Chemistry and Aggregation in Sunlit Seawater

Researchers investigated how seawater's bromide ions alter nanoplastic behavior under UV light, finding that bromine radicals accelerate surface oxidation and coating degradation in a surface-chemistry-dependent manner, causing amine-coated plastics to aggregate faster while plain and carboxyl-coated types form large microscale aggregates through calcium bridging.

2026 Water Research
Article Tier 2

Aging Significantly Affects Mobility and Contaminant-Mobilizing Ability of Nanoplastics in Saturated Loamy Sand

Researchers studied how aging from UV light and ozone exposure affects the mobility of nanoplastics in soil and found that aged particles traveled much farther through the soil column than pristine ones. The aged nanoplastics also carried more chemical contaminants with them as they moved. The findings suggest that weathered nanoplastics in the environment may pose greater risks for groundwater contamination than previously assumed.

2019 Environmental Science & Technology 424 citations