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61,005 resultsShowing papers similar to Laboratory simulated aging methods, mechanisms and characteristic changes of microplastics: A review
ClearReview of the artificially-accelerated aging technology and ecological risk of microplastics
This review examines laboratory methods used to artificially age microplastics to simulate long-term environmental weathering, including UV light, chemical oxidation, heat, and radiation treatments. Researchers found that aging generally increases the environmental risks of microplastics by making them easier for organisms to ingest, enhancing their ability to interact with other pollutants, and triggering the release of chemical additives. The study calls for more realistic aging methods that better simulate the complex conditions microplastics face in natural environments.
Mechanism and characterization of microplastic aging process: A review
This review explains how microplastics age and break down in the environment through sunlight, heat, and chemical reactions, and why this aging process matters. As microplastics weather, their surfaces change in ways that make them better at absorbing toxic pollutants and more harmful to living organisms. Understanding these aging processes is important because the microplastics people encounter in food and water have typically been weathered, meaning they may be more dangerous than the fresh plastics used in most lab studies.
Aging Process of Microplastics in the Environment
This review examines how natural environmental processes — UV radiation, physical abrasion, chemical reactions, and biodegradation — alter the surface, shape, and chemistry of microplastics over time, and how these changes affect their ability to absorb and transport other pollutants. Understanding microplastic aging is critical because weathered particles behave differently than fresh plastic, often becoming more hazardous as pollutant carriers in ecosystems.
A comprehensive review of microplastic aging: Laboratory simulations, physicochemical properties, adsorption mechanisms, and environmental impacts
This review examines how microplastics change as they age in the environment through exposure to sunlight, water, and chemicals, becoming rougher and more chemically reactive over time. Aged microplastics absorb more pollutants than fresh ones and release harmful additives and free radicals, meaning the microplastics people encounter in the real world may be more dangerous than the pristine particles typically used in lab studies.
Recent advances on microplastic aging: Identification, mechanism, influence factors, and additives release
This review found that environmental aging transforms microplastic surface properties through abrasion, chemical oxidation, UV irradiation, and biodegradation, altering their environmental behavior and ecological risk. Aging also triggers the release of toxic plastic additives, but significant gaps remain between laboratory aging simulations and real-world conditions.
Developing environmentally relevant test materials for microplastic research through UV-induced photoaging
Researchers used UV irradiation to create photoaged microplastics from multiple polymer types as environmentally relevant test materials for ecotoxicology research, characterizing how aging changes surface chemistry, particle size distribution, and potential biological effects.
Microplastic aging processes: Environmental relevance and analytical implications
Researchers reviewed how microplastics change physically and chemically over time in the environment — a process called 'aging' — and found that standard lab methods for detecting microplastics were mostly developed using fresh, unaged plastics, making it harder to accurately measure real-world contamination. Improved analytical methods that account for aged microplastics are needed for reliable environmental assessment.
Preparing and characterizing environmentally aged microplastics
When microplastics enter the environment, they are not static — UV radiation, water, temperature, and biological activity all cause them to age, changing their surface structure, chemical composition, and behavior. This paper presents a standardized laboratory protocol for systematically recreating and measuring microplastic aging across different environments (soil, water, air, and inside organisms), along with a composite aging index to quantify how degraded a particle has become. Having a consistent, reproducible method for studying aging is a critical step toward understanding how microplastics change as they move through ecosystems and how that affects their health and environmental risks.
Mechanistic insights into non-negligible toxicity evolution of microplastics under different aging processes
This review examines how different environmental aging processes, such as UV exposure, mechanical wear, and chemical weathering, change the physical and chemical properties of microplastics and alter their toxicity. Researchers found that aged microplastics and the chemicals they leach tend to be more harmful to organisms than fresh particles, causing growth inhibition and genetic damage. The findings suggest that the environmental risks of microplastics may increase significantly as they degrade over time.
Laboratory simulation of microplastics weathering and its adsorption behaviors in an aqueous environment: A systematic review
UV photo-oxidation and physical abrasion are the most practical laboratory methods for simulating microplastic weathering; aging increases surface area and oxygen-containing functional groups, altering pollutant adsorption behavior and potentially increasing environmental risks.
Aging of plastics and microplastics in the environment: a review on influencing factors, quantification methods, challenges, and future perspectives
This review examined how plastics and microplastics age and degrade in the environment through physical, chemical, and biological processes. Researchers found that while various analytical techniques exist to measure degradation, there is no widely accepted standard method for comparing how different environmental conditions affect microplastic breakdown rates. The study highlights the need for better tools to predict how long microplastics will persist in different environments, which is essential for understanding their long-term ecological impact.
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.
The wheel of time: The environmental dance of aged micro- and nanoplastics and their biological resonance
This review examines how micro- and nanoplastics change as they age in the environment through exposure to sunlight, water, and biological activity. Aged plastics behave differently than fresh ones: they accumulate faster in ecosystems, are more easily taken up by organisms, and can release trapped chemicals as they break down. The findings suggest that the real-world health and environmental risks of microplastics may be greater than lab studies using new, unweathered plastics indicate.
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.
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.
Weathering pathways and protocols for environmentally relevant microplastics and nanoplastics: What are we missing?
This review highlights a major gap in microplastics research: most lab studies use brand-new, pristine plastic particles, but microplastics in the real world have been weathered by sunlight, water, and biological activity. Weathered microplastics behave differently, releasing more chemicals and interacting with organisms in ways that fresh plastics do not. Only about 10% of published studies have used aged microplastics, meaning current risk assessments may not reflect the true dangers of environmental microplastic exposure.
Characteristics and behaviors of microplastics undergoing photoaging and Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOPs) initiated aging
This review examines how microplastics change as they age in the environment through sunlight exposure and chemical processes. Aging alters the surface properties of microplastics, making them better at absorbing toxic chemicals and heavy metals from the surrounding environment. Since nearly all microplastics found in nature have undergone some degree of aging, understanding these changes is essential for accurately assessing how dangerous real-world microplastic pollution is to human health.
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.
Physicochemical and biological ageing processes of (micro)plastics in the environment: a multi-tiered study on polyethylene
Researchers applied a multi-tiered approach combining laboratory aging, field deployment, and environmental simulation to study how polyethylene plastic undergoes physicochemical and biological weathering in natural settings. The study found that UV radiation and microbial colonization act synergistically to accelerate surface oxidation and fragmentation of PE into smaller particles.
Accelerated Weathering of Microplastics: A Systematic Approach to Model Microplastic Production
Researchers developed a systematic laboratory method for producing environmentally realistic microplastics through accelerated UV weathering of common polymer types. The approach generates particles with surface degradation patterns that closely mimic those found in nature, unlike commercially available test beads. The study provides a reproducible protocol that could improve the relevance of microplastic toxicity and environmental fate studies.
Analysis of aged microplastics: a review
This review looks at how microplastics change over time in the environment through exposure to sunlight, temperature changes, and biological activity. Aging alters the surface properties of microplastics, which can make them more toxic and change how they interact with other pollutants. Advanced techniques like infrared and Raman spectroscopy are the best current methods for identifying and tracking these aged microplastics in environmental samples.
A review on enriched microplastics in environment: From the perspective of their aging impact and associate risk
This review explores what happens to microplastics as they age in the environment over long periods. Researchers found that natural weathering changes the physical and chemical properties of microplastics in ways that may increase their ability to harbor harmful microorganisms and interact with other pollutants, suggesting that aging may actually make microplastic pollution more hazardous over time rather than less.
Abiotic Long-Term Simulation of Microplastic Weathering Pathways under Different Aqueous Conditions
Laboratory weathering experiments simulated long-term microplastic degradation under UV, thermal, and mechanical stress to characterize how environmental exposure alters plastic surface chemistry, fragmentation, and additive release. The results provide insight into the formation pathways of secondary microplastics under realistic environmental conditions.
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.