Centro de Ciências do Mar do Algarve, Universidade do Algarve, Campus de Gambelas, Building 7, 8005-139 Faro, Portugal.
Centro de Ciências do Mar do Algarve, Universidade do Algarve, Campus de Gambelas, Building 7, 8005-139 Faro, Portugal; Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade do Algarve, Faro, Portugal.
Mar Pollut Bull. 2022 Dec;185(Pt A):114251. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2022.114251. Epub 2022 Oct 28.
The biodegradability conditions for both, petroleum-based plastics and bioplastics needs to be evaluated under environmentally realistic conditions. We assessed the biodegradability of low-density polyethylene and biobased polyethylene terephthalate microplastic films by a consortium of marine bacteria during 45 days. Bacterial growth and pH were higher in the samples inoculated with bacteria, compared to the controls. Fourier Infrared spectroscopy-Attenuated Total Reflectance and scanning electron microscopy indicated changes in the chemical functional groups, and the presence of fractures and biofilms in the surface of both plastics exposed to the bacterial community, respectively. The chemical oxygen demand further indicated signs of biodegradation of both polymers. Specific groups of bacteria showed preference for each type of microplastic. Overall, our results show signs of biodegradation, or at least biodeterioration and biofragmentation, of both types of plastics, when subjected to the selected bacterial community. Biobased PET was no more prone to biodegradation than conventional, petroleum-based LDPE.
需要在实际环境条件下评估石油基塑料和生物塑料的可生物降解性条件。我们通过海洋细菌的混合物在 45 天内评估了低密度聚乙烯和生物基聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯微塑料薄膜的可生物降解性。与对照组相比，接种细菌的样品中细菌生长和 pH 值更高。傅里叶变换红外光谱-衰减全反射和扫描电子显微镜分别表明，暴露于细菌群落的两种塑料的化学官能团发生了变化，表面出现了裂缝和生物膜。化学需氧量进一步表明了两种聚合物发生生物降解的迹象。特定的细菌群体对每种类型的微塑料表现出偏好。总的来说，我们的结果表明，当暴露于所选细菌群落时，这两种类型的塑料都表现出生物降解的迹象，或者至少是生物降解和生物碎片化。与传统的石油基 LDPE 相比，生物基 PET 并没有更容易生物降解。
