Photoaging mechanism of microplastics: a perspective on the effect of dissolved organic matter in natural water

doi:10.1007/s11783-023-1743-8

Front. Environ. Sci. Eng.

2023, Vol. 17

Issue (11) : 143 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-023-1743-8

PERSPECTIVES

Photoaging mechanism of microplastics: a perspective on the effect of dissolved organic matter in natural water

Ying Yu^1,², Xinna Liu³, Yong Liu¹(

), Jia Liu⁴, Yang Li²(

)

¹. College of Arts and Sciences, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China
². Key Laboratory of Water and Sediment Sciences of Ministry of Education, State Key Laboratory of Water Environment Simulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
³. Institutional Center for Shared Technologies and Facilities, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101 China
⁴. Institute of Analysis and Testing, Beijing Academy of Science and Technology, Beijing Center for Physical & Chemical Analysis, Beijing 100089, China

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Abstract

● Microplastics (MPs) undergo photoaging in natural water under light irradiation.

● ROS generation plays an important role in the photoaging pathway of MPs.

● Dissolved organic matter (DOM) ubiquitous in natural water affects MP photoaging.

● Future works are suggested to study the effect mechanism of DOM on MP photoaging.

Plastic products widespread in natural water can be broken into smaller-sized microplastics (MPs, < 5 mm) under light irradiation, thermal degradation and biodegradation, posing a serious threat to aquatic ecosystems and human health. This perspective concludes that MPs can generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) through initiation, propagation and termination steps, which can attack the polymer resulting in the photoaging and breakdown of C–C and C–H bonds under ultraviolet (UV) irradiation. Free radical generation and weathering degree of MPs depend on their physicochemical properties and environmental conditions. In general, UV irradiation and co-existed MPs can significantly accelerate MP photoaging. With plentiful chromophores (carbonyl, carboxyl and benzene rings, Dissolved organic matter (DOM) mainly absorbs photons (300–500 nm) and generates hydrated electrons, ³DOM* and ROS, which may affect MP photoaging. However, whether DOM may transfer the electron and energy to MPs under UV irradiation, affect ROS generation of MPs and their photoaging pathway are inadequately studied. More studies are needed to elucidate MP photoaging pathways and mechanisms, consider the influence of stabilization capacity, photosensitization and photoionization of DOM as well as their competitive light absorption with MPs, which provides valuable insights into the environmental behavior and ecological risk of MPs in natural water.

Keywords Microplastics Photoaging Dissolved organic matter ROS generation

Corresponding Author(s): Yong Liu,Yang Li

About author:

^* These authors contributed equally to this work.

Issue Date: 15 November 2023

Cite this article:

Ying Yu,Xinna Liu,Yong Liu, et al. Photoaging mechanism of microplastics: a perspective on the effect of dissolved organic matter in natural water[J]. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng., 2023, 17(11): 143.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/10.1007/s11783-023-1743-8
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/Y2023/V17/I11/143

Fig.1 (a) Photooxidation reactions of PVC, (b) PET (Gardette and Lemaire, 1991; Fechine et al., 2004), and (c) photo-fries rearrangement reactions of PC (Diepens and Gijsman, 2007).

MPs	Sizeconcentration	Light condition	DOM concentration	Other conditions	Conclusion	Ref.
PVC	13.0?272 μm, 4 g/L	UV irradiation(365 nm);Visible light irradiation(400 nm)	DOM = 10 mg C/L	Artificial seawaterSalinity of 20%;312 mmol/L Cl^?;0.312 mmol/L Br^?	1. UV irradiation can promote the organotin compounds (OTCs) release from PVC MPs and their photodegradation compared with visible light.2. ³DOM* can react with Br? and Cl? to decrease ?OH consumption, which results in OTCs release from PVC MPs.	Chen et al. (2019)
PS/PP	20.1 ± 5.68μm, 2 g/L	UV irradiation(318/370 nm)	NA	Ultrapure water	1. PS MPs significantly accelerates the photoaging of co-existing PP MPs.2. DOM can be released from PS MPs and generate ¹O₂ and ?OH to attack MPs in the later stage of MP aging.	Liu et al. (2022b)
PS	50/75/150 μm, 25 g/L	Sunlight irradiation(200?1100 nm)	DOM = 20.8 mg/L	Mixed solution (sediment to water = 1:3)	1. DOM undergoes photooxidation to produce O₂^?? and oxidizes the pristine MPs to excited state MPs.2. O₂^?? can promote the generation ?OH and attack the co-excited MPs.	Chen et al. (2023)
PVCPET	112.1 μm,92.0 μm,20 g/L	UV irradiation(λ = NA)	HA = 5.0 mg C/L	Phosphate buffer solution (0.1 mmg/L, pH = 7.2?7.4);FeSO₄ = 0.1 mmg/L	1. HA can promote photooxidation of MPs.2. HA decreases the photoaging dehydrochlorination of PVC MPs.	He et al. (2023)
PP/PET	1?2 mm,2.5 g/L	UV irradiation(254 nm)	DOM = 15/30 mg C/L	Ultrapure water	1. DOM can be released from MP photoaging and adsorb on plastic particle surfaces.2. DOM undergoes the photosensitization due to its unique fermentative and aromatic structure, which can generate more ROS and promote MP photoaging.	Yang et al. (2023)
PS	100?280 μm,2 g/L	UV irradiation(254 nm)	FA = 90.5 mg/L	WastewaterCl^? (150 mg/L);CO₃^2? (400 mg/L);NO₃^? (50 mg/L)	1. FA can absorb UV light and produce reactive species (the triplet excited state, ?OH and ¹O₂) to attack PS MPs, enhancing PS MP photoaging.2. FA plays more important role in photooxidation of PS MPs than other constituents (Cl^?, CO₃^2?and NO₃^?) in wastewater.	Liu et al. (2022a)
PS	100 nm/71.8?106.7 μm, 1 g/L	UV irradiation(365 nm)	DOM = 20 mg/L	Ultrapure water	1. HA/FA can promote photoaging of aliphatic polymers, but inhibit or have little effect on aromatic NPs/MPs photoaging.	Cao et al. (2022)
PP	42.1?107.2μm, 1 g/L	UV irradiation(365 nm)	DOM = 20 mg/L	Ultrapure water	2. ?OH generated by photolysis of DOM can attack PP MPs via a hydrogen extraction reaction and C–C bond cleavage reaction.	Cao et al. (2022)

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