| Autor: |
Yu Yang1, Jun Yang1 yangjun@buaa.edu.cn, Wei-Min Wu2, Jiao Zhao3, Yiling Song4, Longcheng Gao1, Ruifu Yang3, Lei Jiang1 jianglei@iccas.ac.cn |
| Předmět: |
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| Zdroj: |
Environmental Science & Technology. 10/20/2015, Vol. 49 Issue 20, p12080-12086. 7p. |
| Abstrakt: |
Polystyrene (PS) is generally considered to be durable and resistant to biodegradation. Mealworms (the larvae of Tenebrio molitor Linnaeus) from different sources chew and eat Styrofoam, a common PS product. The Styrofoam was efficiently degraded in the larval gut within a retention time of less than 24 h. Fed with Styrofoam as the sole diet, the larvae lived as well as those fed with a normal diet (bran) over a period of 1 month. The analysis of fecula egested from Styrofoam-feeding larvae, using gel permeation chromatography (GPC), solid-state 13C cross-polarization/magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance (CP/MAS NMR) spectroscopy, and thermogravimetric Fourier transform infrared (TG-FTIR) spectroscopy, substantiated that cleavage/depolymerization of long-chain PS molecules and the formation of depolymerized metabolites occurred in the larval gut. Within a 16 day test period, 47.7% of the ingested Styrofoam carbon was converted into CO2 and the residue (ca. 49.2%) was egested as fecula with a limited fraction incorporated into biomass (ca. 0.5%). Tests with α 13C- or β 13C-labeled PS confirmed that the 13C-labeled PS was mineralized to 13CO2 and incorporated into lipids. The discovery of the rapid biodegradation of PS in the larval gut reveals a new fate for plastic waste in the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
| Databáze: |
GreenFILE |
| Externí odkaz: |
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