PMID- 38316252
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20240313
LR  - 20240313
IS  - 1873-6424 (Electronic)
IS  - 0269-7491 (Linking)
VI  - 345
DP  - 2024 Mar 15
TI  - Mechanistic interpretation of the sorption of terbuthylazine pesticide onto aged 
      microplastics.
PG  - 123502
LID - S0269-7491(24)00216-1 [pii]
LID - 10.1016/j.envpol.2024.123502 [doi]
AB  - Microplastics (MPs) pose a global concern due to their ubiquitous distribution. 
      Once in the environment, they are subject to aging, which changes their 
      chemical-physical properties and ability to interact with organic pollutants, 
      such as pesticides. Therefore, this study investigated the interaction of the 
      hydrophobic herbicide terbuthylazine (TBA), which is widely used in agriculture, 
      with artificially aged polyethylene (PE) MP (PE-MP) to understand how aging 
      affects its sorption. PE was aged by an accelerated weathering process including 
      UV irradiation, hydrogen peroxide, and ultrasonic treatment, and aged particles 
      were characterized in comparison to pristine particles. Sorption kinetics were 
      performed for aged and pristine materials, while further sorption studies with 
      aged PE-MP included determining environmental factors such as pH, temperature, 
      and TBA concentration. Sorption of TBA was found to be significantly lower on 
      aged PE-MP compared to pristine particles because aging led to the formation of 
      oxygen-containing functional groups, resulting in a reduction in hydrophobicity 
      and the formation of negatively charged sites on oxidized surfaces. For pristine 
      PE-MP, sorption kinetics were best described by the pseudo-second-order model, 
      while it was intra-particle diffusion for aged PE-MP as a result of crack and 
      pore formation. Sorption followed a decreasing trend with increasing pH, while it 
      became less favorable at higher temperatures. The isotherm data revealed a 
      complex sorption process on altered, heterogeneous surfaces involving hydrophobic 
      interactions, hydrogen bonding, and pi-pi interactions, and the process was best 
      described by the Sips adsorption isotherm model. Desorption was found to be low, 
      confirming a strong interaction. However, thermodynamic results imply that 
      increased temperatures, such as those resulting from climate change, could 
      promote the re-release of TBA from aged PE-MP into the environment. 
      Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) confirmed TBA sorption 
      onto PE.
CI  - Copyright (c) 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.
FAU - Junck, Johannes
AU  - Junck J
AD  - Institute of Soil Science and Soil Conservation, Research Center for Biosystems, 
      Land Use and Nutrition, Justus Liebig University, Giessen, Germany. Electronic 
      address: johannes.junck@en.uni-giessen.de.
FAU - Diagboya, Paul N
AU  - Diagboya PN
AD  - Institute of Soil Science and Soil Conservation, Research Center for Biosystems, 
      Land Use and Nutrition, Justus Liebig University, Giessen, Germany; Environmental 
      Fate of Chemicals and Remediation (EnFaCRe) Laboratory, Department of 
      Environmental Management and Toxicology, University of Delta, Agbor, Nigeria.
FAU - Peqini, Aleksander
AU  - Peqini A
AD  - Institute of Soil Science and Soil Conservation, Research Center for Biosystems, 
      Land Use and Nutrition, Justus Liebig University, Giessen, Germany; Faculty of 
      Agriculture and Environment, Agricultural University of Tirana, Tirana, Albania.
FAU - Rohnke, Marcus
AU  - Rohnke M
AD  - Institute of Physical Chemistry and Center for Materials Research, Justus Liebig 
      University, Giessen, Germany.
FAU - During, Rolf-Alexander
AU  - During RA
AD  - Institute of Soil Science and Soil Conservation, Research Center for Biosystems, 
      Land Use and Nutrition, Justus Liebig University, Giessen, Germany.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20240203
PL  - England
TA  - Environ Pollut
JT  - Environmental pollution (Barking, Essex : 1987)
JID - 8804476
RN  - 0 (Microplastics)
RN  - 0 (Plastics)
RN  - M095B391J7 (terbutylazine)
RN  - 0 (Pesticides)
RN  - 0 (Triazines)
RN  - 9002-88-4 (Polyethylene)
RN  - 0 (Water Pollutants, Chemical)
SB  - IM
MH  - Microplastics/chemistry
MH  - Plastics/chemistry
MH  - *Pesticides/analysis
MH  - Triazines/analysis
MH  - Polyethylene/chemistry
MH  - Adsorption
MH  - *Water Pollutants, Chemical/analysis
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - Aged microplastics
OT  - Polyethylene
OT  - Surface chemistry
OT  - Thermodynamics
OT  - Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS)
OT  - Triazines
COIS- Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known 
      competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared 
      to influence the work reported in this paper.
EDAT- 2024/02/06 00:42
MHDA- 2024/03/13 06:46
CRDT- 2024/02/05 19:23
PHST- 2023/11/25 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2024/01/19 00:00 [revised]
PHST- 2024/02/03 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2024/03/13 06:46 [medline]
PHST- 2024/02/06 00:42 [pubmed]
PHST- 2024/02/05 19:23 [entrez]
AID - S0269-7491(24)00216-1 [pii]
AID - 10.1016/j.envpol.2024.123502 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Environ Pollut. 2024 Mar 15;345:123502. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2024.123502. Epub 
      2024 Feb 3.