Chen Zhijie, Shi Xingdong, Zhang Jiaqi, Wu Lan, Wei Wei, Ni Bing-Jie
Centre for Technology in Water and Wastewater, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Technology Sydney, NSW 2007, Australia.
Water Res X. 2023 Jan 29;19:100169. doi: 10.1016/j.wroa.2023.100169. eCollection 2023 May 1.
Microplastics (MPs) and nanoplastics (NPs) are ubiquitous and intractable in urban waters. Compared with MPs, the smaller NPs have shown distinct physicochemical features, such as Brownian motion, higher specific surface area, and stronger interaction with other pollutants. Therefore, the qualitative and quantitative analysis of NPs is more challenging than that of MPs. Moreover, these characteristics endow NPs with significantly different environmental fate, interactions with pollutants, and eco-impacts from those of MPs in urban waters. Herein, we critically analyze the current advances in the difference between MPs and NPs in urban waters. Analytical challenges, fate, interactions with surrounding pollutants, and eco-impacts of MPs and NPs are comparably discussed., The characterizations and fate studies of NPs are more challenging compared to MPs. Furthermore, NPs in most cases exhibit stronger interactions with other pollutants and more adverse eco-impacts on living things than MPs. Subsequently, perspective in this field is proposed to stimulate further size-dependent studies on MPs and NPs. This review would benefit the understanding of the role of NPs in the urban water ecosystem and guide future studies on plastic pollution management.
微塑料(MPs)和纳米塑料(NPs)在城市水体中无处不在且难以处理。与微塑料相比,更小的纳米塑料表现出不同的物理化学特性,如布朗运动、更高的比表面积以及与其他污染物更强的相互作用。因此,纳米塑料的定性和定量分析比微塑料更具挑战性。此外,这些特性使纳米塑料在城市水体中的环境归宿、与污染物的相互作用以及生态影响与微塑料有显著差异。在此,我们批判性地分析了城市水体中微塑料和纳米塑料差异方面的当前进展。对微塑料和纳米塑料的分析挑战、归宿、与周围污染物的相互作用以及生态影响进行了比较讨论。与微塑料相比,纳米塑料的表征和归宿研究更具挑战性。此外,在大多数情况下,纳米塑料与其他污染物的相互作用更强,对生物的生态影响比微塑料更不利。随后,提出了该领域的展望,以促进对微塑料和纳米塑料进一步的尺寸依赖性研究。这篇综述将有助于理解纳米塑料在城市水生态系统中的作用,并指导未来塑料污染管理的研究。