Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Benzotriazole-type ultraviolet stabilizers and antioxidants in plastic marine debris and their new products

Researchers identified benzotriazole-type ultraviolet stabilizers and antioxidants in plastic marine debris, finding that these plastic additives are present at measurable levels in marine environments and could be released as plastic weathers.

2016 The Science of The Total Environment 191 citations
Article Tier 2

Identification of polymer types and additives in marine microplastic particles using pyrolysis-GC/MS and scanning electron microscopy

Researchers used pyrolysis and thermal analysis to identify polymer types and plastic additives in marine microplastic particles, finding a diverse range of polymers and additive chemicals in samples from multiple ocean environments.

2013 Environmental Science Processes & Impacts 888 citations
Article Tier 2

Plastic additives and microplastics as emerging contaminants: Mechanisms and analytical assessment

Researchers reviewed how chemical additives mixed into plastics during manufacturing — including stabilizers, flame retardants, and plasticizers — can leach out throughout a plastic's lifecycle and pose risks to ecosystems and human health, with microplastics acting as carriers that concentrate and transport these hazardous chemicals.

2022 TrAC Trends in Analytical Chemistry 194 citations
Meta Analysis Tier 1

Plastic additives in the ocean: Use of a comprehensive dataset for meta-analysis and method development

Researchers compiled the first comprehensive database of studies measuring the more than 13,000 chemical additives — including plasticizers, flame retardants, and antioxidants — that are mixed into plastics and can leach into ocean water, sediment, and marine life. Their meta-analysis revealed major gaps in what's being monitored, with only a small fraction of known additives currently being tested for in marine environments.

2024 Chemosphere 13 citations
Article Tier 2

Oceanic Long-Range Transport of Organic Additives Present in Plastic Products – An overview

This review examined the oceanic long-range transport of chemical additives leaching from marine plastic debris, finding that persistent synthetic polymer matrices release significant quantities of additives — including plasticizers, flame retardants, and antioxidants — that can travel globally via ocean currents.

2021 6 citations
Article Tier 2

Les additifs issus des microplastiques : caractérisation, lixiviation et impacts

This review characterizes plastic additives leaching from microplastics into the environment, examining their physicochemical properties, leaching behavior, and biological impacts, and surveying the growing evidence that many plastic additives are toxic to organisms including marine wildlife and humans.

2022 theses.fr (ABES)
Article Tier 2

Estimating the Mass of Chemicals Associated with Ocean Plastic Pollution to Inform Mitigation Efforts

Researchers estimated the mass of chemicals associated with ocean plastic pollution—including plastic additives that leach out and pollutants that adsorb onto plastic surfaces. The total chemical burden from ocean plastics is substantial, adding a chemical pollution dimension to the physical microplastic problem.

2019 Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management 62 citations
Article Tier 2

Methods of analysing chemicals associated with microplastics: a review

This review surveys analytical methods used to identify and quantify chemicals associated with marine microplastics, covering extraction techniques, spectroscopic approaches, and the challenges of characterizing the complex mixture of polymer additives and adsorbed contaminants.

2017 Analytical Methods 111 citations
Article Tier 2

Development of a dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction method for the determination of plastic additives in seawater

Researchers developed a sensitive liquid-liquid microextraction method to detect seven plastic additive chemicals — including phthalates, triclosan, and antioxidants — in seawater, achieving good recovery and detection limits in the parts-per-billion range. These additives leach from microplastics into surrounding water and carry their own toxicity, meaning the chemical contamination from plastic pollution extends well beyond the physical particles themselves.

2024 Analytical Methods 3 citations
Article Tier 2

Screening and Quantification of Micro(Nano)Plastics and Plastic Additives in the Seawater of Mar Menor Lagoon

Researchers analyzed seawater from Mar Menor lagoon in Spain for micro- and nanoplastics, detecting a wide range of polymer types along with plastic additives including phthalates, UV stabilizers, and flame retardants. Both the plastic particles and the chemical additives they carried were present in the lagoon water. This study demonstrates that plastic pollution in coastal lagoons includes not just physical plastic particles but a complex cocktail of toxic chemical contaminants.

2021 Frontiers in Marine Science 21 citations
Article Tier 2

Release of chemical additives and potentially toxic elements from plastics under ambient outdoor environmental conditions

Researchers placed large pieces of seven commercial plastic polymers outdoors under natural conditions for extended periods and measured the release of phthalates, phenolic compounds, and polybrominated diphenyl ethers, finding that realistic environmental conditions cause significant leaching of toxic chemical additives.

2025 Environmental Research
Review Tier 2

Occurrence and effects of plastic additives on marine environments and organisms: A review

This review examines chemical additives found in plastics, such as flame retardants, phthalates, and bisphenol A, and how they leach into the marine environment as plastics accumulate and fragment. Researchers summarize evidence showing that these additives have been detected in marine water, sediment, and organisms, and can transfer from ingested plastic into animal tissues. The findings highlight that the chemical risk from plastic additives deserves as much attention as the physical impacts of microplastic particles themselves.

2017 Chemosphere 1204 citations
Article Tier 2

Effects of aging on environmental behavior of plastic additives: Migration, leaching, and ecotoxicity

This review examines how the aging and weathering of microplastics in the environment causes chemical additives like plasticizers, flame retardants, and antioxidants to leach out. As microplastics age through UV exposure, heat, and biological activity, they release these additives more readily, increasing the toxic risk to organisms. The findings are important because they show that older, weathered microplastics found in the real world may be more chemically hazardous than fresh plastics used in most lab studies.

2022 The Science of The Total Environment 221 citations
Article Tier 2

Chemical and ecotoxicological assessment of microplastics and emerging risks in the coastal environments

This review examines the chemical composition of microplastics found in coastal environments and assesses their ecotoxicological risks, including the leaching of plastic additives and adsorption of environmental pollutants. It emphasizes the need for better risk assessment frameworks that account for both the particles and their associated chemical contaminants.

2020 Dipòsit Digital de la Universitat de Barcelona (Universitat de Barcelona) 3 citations
Systematic Review Tier 1

Environmental behaviors of microplastics in aquatic systems: A systematic review on degradation, adsorption, toxicity and biofilm under aging conditions

Aging processes like UV irradiation and physical abrasion alter microplastic surface properties, increasing their capacity to adsorb environmental pollutants while also enhancing leaching of toxic additives like phthalates, collectively amplifying the environmental toxicity of weathered microplastics.

2021 Journal of Hazardous Materials 560 citations
Article Tier 2

Oceanic long-range transport of organic additives present in plastic products: an overview

Researchers analyzed how chemical additives — such as flame retardants and plasticizers — leach slowly from floating plastic debris and can be carried by ocean currents to remote regions like the Arctic, estimating that roughly 8,100 to 18,900 tonnes of these chemicals travel globally via plastic each year. The study highlights plastic debris as a long-range transport vehicle for toxic chemicals that would otherwise break down before reaching polar ecosystems.

2021 Environmental Sciences Europe 83 citations
Systematic Review Tier 1

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.

2023 The Science of The Total Environment 181 citations
Article Tier 2

Release of additives and non-intentionally added substances from microplastics under environmentally relevant conditions

Researchers measured how chemical additives leach out of different types of microplastics under realistic environmental conditions and found wildly different release rates — spanning five orders of magnitude over 64 days — highlighting that the type of plastic matters greatly when assessing the chemical risks microplastics pose to ecosystems.

2023 Environmental Advances 60 citations
Review Tier 2

Emerging and legacy plasticisers in coastal and estuarine environments: A review

This review examined the occurrence and fate of legacy and emerging plasticizers in coastal and estuarine environments, highlighting the chemical risks posed by these plastic additives beyond the physical effects of microplastics themselves.

2023 The Science of The Total Environment 24 citations
Article Tier 2

Simulated experimental investigation of microplastic weathering in marine environment

Researchers simulated microplastic weathering under marine conditions, finding that exposure to UV light, saltwater, and mechanical abrasion progressively degraded plastic surfaces, increased surface roughness, and enhanced the adsorption capacity of contaminants onto microplastic particles.

2022 Journal of Environmental Science and Health Part A 4 citations
Article Tier 2

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.

2022 Environmental Science & Technology 57 citations
Article Tier 2

Linking UV aging of polymers and microplastics formation: An assessment employing various characterization techniques

This study used environmental assessment tools to model how UV aging of plastic polymers drives microplastic formation in marine environments. The analysis identified polymer-specific degradation rates and environmental conditions that accelerate the conversion of plastic debris into microplastics.

2024 Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Article Tier 2

Monitoring the migration of additives from multiple recycled polyethylene microplastics

Researchers monitored the migration of chemical additives from multiple-recycled polyethylene microplastics, examining how repeated mechanical recycling cycles affect the release of stabilizers, antioxidants, and other polymer additives into aqueous environments.

2025 Repository of Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Technology University of Zagreb
Article Tier 2

Leaching potentials of microplastic fibers and UV stabilizers from coastal-littered face masks

Researchers measured 10 chemical additives including UV stabilizers in 28 types of plastic products and found that face masks contained a particularly high variety of additives. Field investigation confirmed that face mask fibers on coastal litter sites could leach UV stabilizers into surrounding marine environments.

2024 Journal of Hazardous Materials 7 citations