Sewage sludge induces changes in the surface chemistry and crystallinity of polylactic acid and polyethylene films.

Autor: Campanaro AL; University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Chemistry, 225 Pleasant St SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, United States of America., Simcik MF; University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Environmental Health Sciences, 420 Delaware St SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, United States of America., Maurer-Jones MA; University of Minnesota Duluth Chemistry and Biochemistry, 1039 University Drive Duluth, MN 55812, United States of America., Penn RL; University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Chemistry, 225 Pleasant St SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, United States of America. Electronic address: rleepenn@umn.edu.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: The Science of the total environment [Sci Total Environ] 2023 Sep 10; Vol. 890, pp. 164313. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 May 19.
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.164313
Abstrakt: Plastic pollution is a major threat facing our environment. To understand the full effects, we must first characterize how plastics break down in environmental systems. Heretofore, there has been little work examining how exposure to sewage sludge facilitates the degradation of plastics, particularly of plastics that have been previously weathered. Herein, we characterize how the crystallinity, surface chemistry, and morphology of polylactic acid (PLA) and polyethylene (PE) films change due to sludge exposure. In this work, sludge-induced changes in carbonyl index were found to depend on the level of prior exposure to ultraviolet (UV) irradiation. The carbonyl indices of un-irradiated films increased while those of UV-aged films decreased after 35 days of sludge exposure. In addition, the carbon‑oxygen and hydroxyl bond indices of PE films increased with sludge exposure, suggesting the surface oxidation of PE. As for PLA, crystallinity was found to increase with sludge exposure, consistent with a chain scission mechanism. This work will help to predict the behavior of plastic films after transfer from wastewater to sewage sludge.
Competing Interests: 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.
(Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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