Insight into the effect of natural aging of polystyrene microplastics on the sorption of legacy and emerging per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances in seawater.

ABSTRACT: Microplastics (MPs) are abundant in aquatic environments and due to their small size, surface properties, and strong hydrophobicity, they can easily sorb chemicals, thus potentially acting as pollutant carriers. To date, most studies investigating the sorption of chemicals on MPs have principally focused on virgin MPs. However, MPs in the environment undergo aging effects, which changes their physical-chemical properties and aptitude to interact with chemicals, such as per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) referred to as "forever chemicals". In this study, we compared the sorption behavior of nine PFAS, exhibiting different physical-chemical properties, on virgin and naturally aged polystyrene microplastic (PS-MPs) to explore to what extent the environmental aging affects the so

SUBMITTER: Barhoumi B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11626057 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature