Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
8871672 | Marine Pollution Bulletin | 2018 | 9 Pages |
Abstract
A sea water wave tank fitted in an artificial UV light weathering chamber was built to study the behaviour of polypropylene (PP) injected pieces in close ocean-like conditions. In air, the same pieces sees a degradation in the bulk with a decrease of mechanical properties, a little change of crystal properties and nearly no change of surface chemistry. Weathering in the sea water wave tank shows only a surface changes, with no effect on crystals or mechanical properties with loss of small pieces of matter in the sub-micron range and a change of surface chemistry. This suggests an erosion dispersion mechanism. Such mechanism could explain why no particle smaller than about one millimeter is found when collecting plastic debris at sea: there are much smaller, eroded from plastic surfaces by a mechano-chemical process similar to the erosion mechanism found in the dispersion of agglomerate under flow.
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Earth and Planetary Sciences
Oceanography
Authors
Ana-Maria ResmeriÈÄ, Adina Coroaba, Raluca Darie, Florica Doroftei, Iuliana Spiridon, Bogdan C. Simionescu, Patrick Navard,