Fangni Du, Huiwen Cai, Lei Su, Wei Wang, Liwu Zhang, Chengjun Sun, Beizhan Yan and Huahong Shi
{"title":"失踪的小型微塑料:在实验室中很容易从风化的塑料碎片中产生,但在自然环境中却很难检测到","authors":"Fangni Du, Huiwen Cai, Lei Su, Wei Wang, Liwu Zhang, Chengjun Sun, Beizhan Yan and Huahong Shi","doi":"10.1039/D3VA00291H","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p >Small microplastics (SMPs, 1–20 μm) and nanoplastics (NPs, 1–1000 nm) are contaminants of high concern, but they were only documented in a few studies due to challenges during pre-treatment and characterization in environmental samples. In this study, weathered plastic pieces and surrounding sediments were collected from 3 areas of Yangtze Estuary, China. A top-down method was used to generate SMPs/NPs from plastic pieces using an ultrasonic cleaner in the lab, and the abundance and size distribution of SMPs/NPs generated, as well as those found from the surrounding sediments of the pieces in the field were measured and subsequently compared after verifying polymer types using Raman spectroscopy. The results revealed that each plastic piece generated an average of 3 × 10<small><sup>4</sup></small> particles of MPs, and NPs with size down to 620 nm in lab samples. However, the number of SMPs found in surrounding sediments was almost 3 times lower than that generated from one plastic piece. Furthermore, the particle size ranges do not align with those generated in the lab. It indicated that smaller and more abundant SMPs/NPs could be generated from the weathered plastic pieces, but few SMPs were found in surrounding environments. We assume that the current sampling and identification methods limit the representativeness of samples and the accuracy of SMP/NP detection.</p>","PeriodicalId":72941,"journal":{"name":"Environmental science. Advances","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.5000,"publicationDate":"2023-12-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2024/va/d3va00291h?page=search","citationCount":"0","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"The missing small microplastics: easily generated from weathered plastic pieces in labs but hardly detected in natural environments†\",\"authors\":\"Fangni Du, Huiwen Cai, Lei Su, Wei Wang, Liwu Zhang, Chengjun Sun, Beizhan Yan and Huahong Shi\",\"doi\":\"10.1039/D3VA00291H\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"<p >Small microplastics (SMPs, 1–20 μm) and nanoplastics (NPs, 1–1000 nm) are contaminants of high concern, but they were only documented in a few studies due to challenges during pre-treatment and characterization in environmental samples. In this study, weathered plastic pieces and surrounding sediments were collected from 3 areas of Yangtze Estuary, China. A top-down method was used to generate SMPs/NPs from plastic pieces using an ultrasonic cleaner in the lab, and the abundance and size distribution of SMPs/NPs generated, as well as those found from the surrounding sediments of the pieces in the field were measured and subsequently compared after verifying polymer types using Raman spectroscopy. The results revealed that each plastic piece generated an average of 3 × 10<small><sup>4</sup></small> particles of MPs, and NPs with size down to 620 nm in lab samples. However, the number of SMPs found in surrounding sediments was almost 3 times lower than that generated from one plastic piece. Furthermore, the particle size ranges do not align with those generated in the lab. It indicated that smaller and more abundant SMPs/NPs could be generated from the weathered plastic pieces, but few SMPs were found in surrounding environments. We assume that the current sampling and identification methods limit the representativeness of samples and the accuracy of SMP/NP detection.</p>\",\"PeriodicalId\":72941,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"Environmental science. Advances\",\"volume\":null,\"pages\":null},\"PeriodicalIF\":3.5000,\"publicationDate\":\"2023-12-12\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2024/va/d3va00291h?page=search\",\"citationCount\":\"0\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"Environmental science. Advances\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"1085\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2024/va/d3va00291h\",\"RegionNum\":0,\"RegionCategory\":null,\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"\",\"PubModel\":\"\",\"JCR\":\"Q3\",\"JCRName\":\"ENGINEERING, ENVIRONMENTAL\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Environmental science. Advances","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2024/va/d3va00291h","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"ENGINEERING, ENVIRONMENTAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
The missing small microplastics: easily generated from weathered plastic pieces in labs but hardly detected in natural environments†
Small microplastics (SMPs, 1–20 μm) and nanoplastics (NPs, 1–1000 nm) are contaminants of high concern, but they were only documented in a few studies due to challenges during pre-treatment and characterization in environmental samples. In this study, weathered plastic pieces and surrounding sediments were collected from 3 areas of Yangtze Estuary, China. A top-down method was used to generate SMPs/NPs from plastic pieces using an ultrasonic cleaner in the lab, and the abundance and size distribution of SMPs/NPs generated, as well as those found from the surrounding sediments of the pieces in the field were measured and subsequently compared after verifying polymer types using Raman spectroscopy. The results revealed that each plastic piece generated an average of 3 × 104 particles of MPs, and NPs with size down to 620 nm in lab samples. However, the number of SMPs found in surrounding sediments was almost 3 times lower than that generated from one plastic piece. Furthermore, the particle size ranges do not align with those generated in the lab. It indicated that smaller and more abundant SMPs/NPs could be generated from the weathered plastic pieces, but few SMPs were found in surrounding environments. We assume that the current sampling and identification methods limit the representativeness of samples and the accuracy of SMP/NP detection.