Nanoplastics (NPs) are defined as colloids that originate from the unintentional degradation of plastic. They have recently been detected in the North Atlantic Ocean and are characterized by a continuum in sizes ranging from 1nm to 1µm, associated to asymmetrical shapes and Brownian motion (ter Halle et al., 2017, Gigault et al., 2019). Since these particles could pose specific ecological and health risks, it appears crucial to describe their global environmental fate. In the life-cycle of a plastic debris, the terrestrial compartment is the main source and water is the main vector. As their final destination is the ocean, their transportation pathways from soil to marine system need to be elucidated in order to better evaluate their final impact on the environment and human health. Within the frame of different national and International projects, the last five years we focused our research on the understanding of the environmental fate of nanoplastics. The objective of this presentation is to demonstrate the analytical strategy (nanoplastics standards and analytical methods) that we developed to characterize nanoplastics in the environment and how this strategy is relevant to assess the life cycle of nanoplastics in the environment based on in-situ measurement coupled to experimental approach. On the different systems investigated, I will focus particularly on Mangrove swamp and soil system. Using a combined approach of asymmetrical flow field flow fractionation (A4F) coupled to light scattering (SLS) and pyrolysis – gas chromatography – mass spectrometry (PyGCMS), we isolated and demonstrated the presence of nanoplastics in soil and in Mangrove water/sediment from 50 up to 200nm, largely heterogeneous in composition (PS, PVC, PE) and hetero-aggregated with the natural organic matter (NOM). These results confirm those ones obtained in laboratory by reproducing the environmental features (and their dynamics) of these both systems and using various NPs standards with in-situ detection (IS-DLS). Definitely, the nanoplastics composition, size and structure (opened-structure) play a key role in their dynamics in these systems. Our results also demonstrated that these properties control the nanoplastics “trojan horse” property, and more specifically for Pb(II) (Davranche et al., 2019). Based on these results new orientations of our strategy were made and would be presented/discussed during the ACS meeting.

Characterization of the nanoplastics fate from soil to ocean: Coupling <i>in situ</i> measurement with experimental investigation

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

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ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.

Characterization of the nanoplastics fate from soil to ocean: Coupling in situ measurement with experimental investigation