Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Biotransformation of Organic Solid Waste, Shanghai Key Laboratory for Urban Ecological Process and Eco-Restoration, School of Ecological and Environmental Sciences, East China Normal University, and Institute of Eco-Chongming, Shanghai 200241, China.
State Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Research, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China.
Water Res. 2021 May 1;195:116956. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2021.116956. Epub 2021 Feb 23.
Due to the hydrophobicity and large specific surface area microplastics (MPs) have become the vector for the migration of environmental organic pollutants. Environmental aging process affects the physiochemical structure of MPs and their corresponding environmental behaviors, in which the effect of bisphenol A (BPA) binding mode within plastic matrix on aging behaviors of MPs is not reported. In this work, the structural properties and BPA sorption behaviors of low density polyethylene (LDPE) MPs with BPA additives and polycarbonate (PC) MPs with BPA monomers exposed to three types of artificial accelerated aging processes including UV/HO, UV/HO, and UV/Cl systems were comparatively investigated. Virgin LDPE and PC exhibited obvious leakage of BPA additives or monomers. Aged LDPE had stronger sorption ability towards BPA in water environment with no observed leakage of BPA additives. While, aged PC had extremely high leakage of BPA monomers, which is similar to virgin PCs and was proved to be a persistent source of BPA release. The BPA sorption on aged LDPE or leaching from aged PC was influenced by aging processes, water pH, salinity, co-existing estradiol (E2), and water sources. This study reveals the potential ecological and environmental risks of MPs containing toxic additives/monomers during aging processes from a new perspective.
由于疏水性和大的比表面积，微塑料（MPs）已成为环境有机污染物迁移的载体。环境老化过程会影响 MPs 的物理化学结构及其相应的环境行为，其中塑料基质中双酚 A（BPA）结合模式对 MPs 老化行为的影响尚未见报道。在这项工作中，比较研究了含有 BPA 添加剂的低密度聚乙烯（LDPE） MPs 和含有 BPA 单体的聚碳酸酯（PC） MPs 在三种人工加速老化过程（包括 UV/HO、UV/HO 和 UV/Cl 系统）中的结构特性和 BPA 吸附行为。原始的 LDPE 和 PC 表现出明显的 BPA 添加剂或单体泄漏。在水环境中，老化的 LDPE 对 BPA 具有更强的吸附能力，而没有观察到 BPA 添加剂的泄漏。然而，老化的 PC 对 BPA 单体的泄漏非常严重，与原始 PC 相似，被证明是 BPA 持续释放的来源。老化过程、水的 pH 值、盐度、共存的雌二醇（E2）和水源都会影响 BPA 在老化 LDPE 上的吸附或从老化 PC 中的浸出。本研究从新的角度揭示了含有有毒添加剂/单体的 MPs 在老化过程中潜在的生态和环境风险。
