engleski

Modelling of the Interactions of Organic Pollutants and Microplastics in the Water

The presence of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) in aquatic environment represents the risk due to potential adverse effects on both human health and the environment. The term CECs does not only apply to chemical contaminants but to the microplastics (MPs) as well. As MPs may interact with the co-pollutants present in water through sorption, they may serve as vectors for adsorbed chemicals, altering their environmental behaviour and overall toxicity. Aging due to common atmospheric stressors such as ultraviolet radiation, temperature, humidity and oxygen leads to micro- as well as macro-scale degradation of MP which may have significant influence on interactions MP/co-pollutants. Since photo- degradation is one of the dominant processes, the intention of this work was to determine change in bulk and surface PP properties caused by UV-aging. We investigated adsorption behaviour of pesticides on pristine and aged MPs, aiming to establish correlation between structural characteristics of MPs and adsorption capacity at varied conditions. For that purpose, polypropylene (PP) MPs were used as the most abundant type in aquatic environment and atrazine and alachlor as the representatives of widely used pesticides. The adsorption experiments were performed according to statistical experimental design, whereas the particle size and the level of MPs aging, as well as pH and temperature were used as influential factors. The results were modelled using the principles of response surface methodology and the corresponding adsorption isotherms were established. The nature of the adsorption, bonding types and the adsorption energies were further studied by density functional theory (DFT).

Microplastics, Ageing, Adsorption, DFT

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