海滩环境中微纤维的老化特征研究

Aging characterization of microfiber in beach environment

  • 摘要: 微塑料在海洋环境中广泛分布,其作为新污染物受到世界关注。微纤维是微塑料的主要类别,然而目前对微纤维老化行为的研究相对较少,紫外光照和机械磨损老化对微纤维的影响尚不明晰。本文根据海滩环境常见的微塑料纤维类型,选取聚丙烯(polypropylene,PP)、聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯(polyethylene terephthalate,PET)和聚乙烯(polyethylene,PE)开展为期8周的紫外光照和机械磨损老化实验,结合红外光谱和扫描电镜分析,探究微纤维在老化降解过程中的特征变化。结果显示,PP口罩在紫外光照和机械磨损下可以破碎释放小尺寸(<0.8 mm)微纤维。紫外光照促进PP微纤维氧化生成新官能团,PET和PE微纤维官能团无明显变化。在粗沙和砾石机械磨损下微纤维表面逐渐粗糙,且随着老化时间增加出现明显断裂,经粗沙磨损老化生成的PP微纤维(6.2个/mm2)显著高于砾石磨损(3.4个/mm2)。该实验结果有助于弥补现有海洋微纤维老化行为研究和数据的不足,为微纤维来源归趋、环境行为及其风险评估等提供基础数据。

     

    Abstract: As a new pollutant of global concern, microplastics are widely found in marine environments. Microfiber is the main type of microplastics. However, there are relatively few studies on the aging behavior of microfibers, the effects of ultraviolet light and mechanical abrasion aging on microfibers are not clear. In this paper, based on the common polymers of microfibers found in the beach, polypropylene (PP), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and polyethylene (PE) were selected to carry out ultraviolet light and mechanical abrasion aging experiments for a period of 8 weeks. The aging characteristics of the microfibers were analyzed combined with infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The results showed that PP masks could be broken to release small-sized (<0.8 mm) microfibers. PP microfibers were oxidized to generate new functional groups by ultraviolet light, while PET and PE microfibers had no obvious changes in functional groups. The mechanical abrasion aging accelerated the shedding of microfibers, the surface of microfibers showed obvious cracks and the fragmentation getting serious with the increase of aging time. The released number of microfibers generated by coarse sand (6.2 microfibers/mm2) was significantly higher than that of gravel abrasion (3.4 microfibers/mm2) after 8 weeks of mechanical abrasion aging. The results of this experiment can help to make up for the lack of existing research and data on the aging behavior of marine microfibers, provide basic data for the sources and fate, environmental behavior and risk assessment of microfibers.

     

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