State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing, College of Chemical Engineering and Environment, China University of Petroleum-Beijing, Beijing 102249, China.
School of Energy and Environmental Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China.
Environ Sci Technol. 2023 Jul 25;57(29):10754-10762. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.3c02299. Epub 2023 Jul 10.
Plastic has been demonstrated to release nanoplastics (NPs) into the atmosphere under sunlight irradiation, posing a continuous health risk to the respiratory system. However, due to lack of reliable quantification methods, the occurrence and distribution of NPs in the atmosphere remain unclear. Polystyrene (PS) micro- and nanoplastics (MNPs) represent a crucial component of atmospheric MNPs. In this study, we proposed a simple and robust method for determining the concentration of atmospheric PS NPs using pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS). Following active sampling, the filter membrane is directly ground and introduced into the Py-GC/MS system to quantify PS NPs. The proposed method demonstrates excellent reproducibility and high sensitivity, with a detection limit as low as down to 15 pg/m for PS NPs. By using this method, the occurrence of PS NPs in both indoor and outdoor atmospheres has been confirmed. Furthermore, the results showed that the abundance of outdoor PS NPs was significantly higher than that of indoor samples, and there was no significant difference in NP vertical distribution within a height of 28.6 m. This method can be applied for the routine monitoring of atmospheric PS NPs and for evaluating their risk to human health.
塑料在阳光照射下会向大气中释放纳米塑料（NPs），对呼吸系统造成持续的健康风险。然而，由于缺乏可靠的定量方法，大气 NPs 的发生和分布仍不清楚。聚苯乙烯（PS）微塑料和纳米塑料（MNPs）是大气 MNPs 的重要组成部分。在这项研究中，我们提出了一种使用热裂解-气相色谱-质谱法（Py-GC/MS）测定大气 PS NPs 浓度的简单而稳健的方法。通过主动采样，将滤膜直接研磨并引入 Py-GC/MS 系统中，以定量 PS NPs。所提出的方法具有出色的重现性和高灵敏度，PS NPs 的检测限低至 15 pg/m。使用该方法，确认了室内和室外大气中 PS NPs 的存在。此外，结果表明，室外 PS NPs 的丰度明显高于室内样本，在 28.6 米高度内的 NP 垂直分布没有显著差异。该方法可用于大气 PS NPs 的常规监测，并评估其对人类健康的风险。
