Science of the Total Environment 628–629 (2018) 740–747

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Science of the Total Environment

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/scitotenv

Observation of the degradation of three types of plastic pellets exposed to

UV irradiation in three different environments
Liqi Cai, Jundong Wang, Jinping Peng ⁎, Ziqing Wu, Xiangling Tan
Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Light Industry, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China

H I G H L I G H T S G R A P H I C A L A B S T R A C T

• Degradation of plastics under UV irradi-

ation in different environments was
studied.
• Changes in chemical/physical properties
were examined by FTIR, Raman, and
SEM.
• Similarities and discrepancies in the
degradation processes were investi-
gated.
• Exposure time, oxygen content and the
water chemistry are the important fac-
tors affecting the degradation degree.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Plastic debris represents one of the most prevalent and persistent pollution problems in the marine environment.
Received 11 December 2017 In particular, microplastics that are mainly degraded from larger plastic debris have become a growing environ-
Received in revised form 22 January 2018 mental concern. However, studies on the degradation of plastics in the aquatic environment that hydrobios re-
Accepted 7 February 2018
side in have been limited, while several studies regarding the degradation of plastics have been conducted
Available online 20 February 2018
under outdoor or accelerated weathering conditions. Thus, observation of the degradation of three types of virgin
Editor: D. Barcelo plastic pellets exposed to UV irradiation in three different environments (i.e., simulated seawater, ultrapure
water, and a waterless (air) condition) was carried out. Data on the changes in physical and chemical properties
Keywords: were collected. The FTIR spectra showed that hydroxyl groups and carbonyl groups developed in three types of
Plastic pellets weathered plastic pellets under the air and ultrapure water environmental conditions after 3 months of UV irra-
Plastic types diation, while only carbonyl groups were found in plastic pellets in the simulated seawater environment. In con-
Different environments trast, the Raman spectra showed no significant changes in the weathered plastic pellets, but there were different
UV irradiation intensities of characteristic peaks after exposure to UV irradiation. In addition, SEM images illustrated that gran-
Degradation
ular oxidation, cracks and flakes were common patterns during degradation, and the plastic pellets in the three
different environments experienced different levels of chemical weathering. We suggest that further studies on
the degradation processes of plastic debris are needed to predict the fate of plastic debris in the environment.
© 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

The annual production of plastic materials has grown exponentially

⁎ Corresponding author. over the past few decades, with approximately 322 million tons being
E-mail address: Jppeng@gdut.edu.cn (J. Peng). produced in 2015 (PlasticsEurope, 2016). Plastics, due to their

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.02.079
0048-9697/© 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
 L. Cai et al. / Science of the Total Environment 628–629 (2018) 740–747
inexpensive, lightweight, and durable properties, are suitable for a large
variety of consumer products used in everyday life (Thompson et al.,
2009; Wang et al., 2016). However, the accumulation of plastic waste in
the environment, especially in the ocean, has been of great concern lead-
ing to long-term environmental, economic, and pollution management
problems (Singh and Sharma, 2008). Some studies indicated that there
may be N5 trillion pieces of plastic in the oceans globally (Eriksen et al.,
2014), and 4.8 to 12.7 million tons of plastic waste was estimated to
enter the oceans in 2010 (Jambeck et al., 2015). In addition, it was re-
ported that 60% to 80% of floating litter in the oceans consisted of plastic
debris, and the amount of plastic debris in the environment increases
each year (Moore, 2008; Gewert et al., 2015) because most plastic prod-
ucts are used in single-use applications that have a low recovery value
and are difficult to degrade in the environment (Wang et al., 2016). Nota-
bly, it has been predicted that the total weight of plastic debris in the
oceans could be heavier than the total weight of fish by 2050 unless effec-
tive measures are taken (Neufeld et al., 2016; Song et al., 2017).
Among the plastic debris in the ocean, microplastics (i.e., plastic par-
ticles b5 mm in diameter) have been reported to compose the majority
of debris (Goldstein et al., 2013; Hidalgo-Ruz et al., 2012). Sources of
microplastics include primary sources (i.e., plastics of microscopic size
that are purposefully used) and secondary sources (i.e., fragmentation
and degradation from larger plastic items). The continuous degradation
of plastics could result in an amount of microplastics that would inevi-
tably increase in the environment with time (Wang et al., 2016). In
addition, because plastic debris of small size can be easily transported
by ocean currents, wind, tides and tsunamis in the environment
(Collignon et al., 2012; Wang et al., 2016), microplastics have become
a prevalent component and can be found worldwide in the global envi-
ronment, including seas (Van Cauwenberghe et al., 2013; Thompson et
al., 2004), freshwater lakes (Fischer et al., 2016; Ballent et al., 2016), riv-
ers (Peng et al., 2017; Morritt et al., 2014; Wang et al., 2017), terrestrial
environments (Jambeck et al., 2015), and atmospheric fallout (Dris et
al., 2016; Cai et al., 2017). Meanwhile, these environmental forces
(mainly physical effects) could also contribute to the fragmentation
and degradation of plastics in the environment to some extent. In addi-
tion, there is a particular concern that microplastics have been reported
to be ingested by a wide variety of organisms (Gall and Thompson,
2015; Zhao et al., 2016; Li et al., 2016; Sanchez et al., 2014), which can
be transferred through the food web (Setälä et al., 2014). More impor-
tantly, microplastics contain various chemicals, such as additives
(Rochman et al., 2013; Lithner et al., 2011) and metals (Holmes et al.,
2014; Turner and Holmes, 2015), which have also been widely reported.
For example, some additives are added into plastics during the
manufacturing process to obtain better stability. However, there addi-
tives could leach out from the plastics as they degrade in the environ-
ments because they are usually not covalently bonded to the polymers
(Lenz et al., 2015; Gewert et al., 2015). Thus, the chemicals carried by
plastics can bioaccumulate in organisms when the plastics are mistaken
by organisms, which causes adverse effects on the normal functioning of
organisms and even poses a potential health hazard to human beings
(Eerkes-Medrano et al., 2015).
Plastic debris, including microplastics, could persist in the environ-
ment for hundreds or even thousands of years due to its stability and
durability (Barnes et al., 2009; Gewert et al., 2015).In addition, larger
plastics in the environment would continually degrade into
microplastics (Andrady, 2011; Wang et al., 2016) as a result of physical,
chemical and microbial effects, resulting in an annual increase in the
amount of microplastics. Thus, it is essential to understand the degrada-
tion processes of plastic particles to increase our understanding of the
source of microplastics, predict the fate of microplastics in the environ-
ment, and evaluate the potential environmental hazards to organisms.
Currently, although some studies regarding the degradation of plastics
have been conducted under outdoor conditions (Rajakumar et al.,
2009; Azuma et al., 2009) or accelerated weathering conditions in labo-
ratory experiments (Stark and Matuana, 2004; Song et al., 2017),
741
studies on the degradation of plastics in the aquatic environment that
hydrobios reside in have been limited, especially for plastic particles of
small size (b5 mm). In addition, knowing the degradation process of
plastics in different environments is critical for calculating their resi-
dence times in different environments and providing a basis for evaluat-
ing the status of plastic pollution in these environments. This study
focuses on the secondary source of microplastics (i.e., degradation)
and intends to investigate similarities and discrepancies in the degrada-
tion process of plastics for different environments. Thus, observation of
the degradation of three types of virgin plastic pellets exposed to UV ir-
radiation in three different environments (i.e., simulated seawater, ul-
trapure water, and a waterless (air) condition) was carried out. Data
on the changes in physical and chemical properties were collected,
and comparisons of plastic pellets in three different environments and
under different exposure times were also performed.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Samples and experimental setting
Three types of commonly used plastics (i.e., polyethylene (PE), poly-
propylene (PP), and polystyrene (PS) virgin plastic pellets; 150 items,
respectively) were obtained from DuPont Engineering Polymers, and
three different simulation environments (i.e., simulated seawater
(26.5 g/L NaCl +24 g/L MgCl2 + 0.73 g/L KCl + 3.3 g/L MgSO4 +
0.2 g/L NaHCO3 + 1.1 g/L CaCl2 + 0.28 g/L NaBr), ultrapure water, and
a waterless (air) condition) were established. In addition, UVA340
lamp was selected as simulated natural sunlight because it can give a
good reproduction of natural sunlight (Brennan, 1987). First, the sam-
ples were placed evenly on glass dishes, and the samples were just sub-
merged in the simulated seawater or ultrapure water solution
environments (Fig. 1) using a dropper. Then, the glass dishes were
transferred into homemade environmental chamber (Fig. 2; 60 cm
× 30 cm × 30 cm for length, width, height, respectively) that was
equipped with a UV lamp (UVA340).
This aging experiment, with a period of 3 months (one month was
30 days, which was defined as a cycle), were conducted with continu-
ous UV irradiation. 15 of the plastic pellets in each solution environment
were randomly removed in each cycle, and then the surface solutions of
the removed samples were dried with absorbent papers. After that,
these samples were dried at 60 °C and stored in glass containers in the
dark (Brandon et al., 2016). Meanwhile, 15 of the plastic pellets in the
air environment were also randomly selected out of each cycle for
analysis.
2.2. FTIR analysis
For the FTIR analysis, 5 items of each type of virgin plastic pellet (PE,
PP and PS) were analyzed using FTIR spectroscopy (Nicolet 6700, Thermo
Fisher, USA) equipped with an attenuated total reflectance (ATR) dia-
mond crystal attachment in order to establish their reference spectra.
Ranges of the spectra were set from 4000 to 500 cm−1, and the collection
time was 16 s for each measurement. In addition, 5 items of each type of
weathered plastic pellets (treated by different UV irradiation times, i.e.,
1 month, 2 months and 3 months) were randomly selected and analyzed
by FTIR spectroscopy. Three different points (i.e., the central point and
two different edge points) of each sample were examined. Among
these resulting spectra, the representative resulting spectra were selected
and compared with their reference spectra without post-processing or
transformation after each experimental cycle.
2.3. Raman analysis
For the Raman analysis, 5 items of each type of virgin plastic pellet
(PE, PP and PS) were examined using a Raman spectroscopy (LabRAM
HR 800, HORIBA, France) with a laser wavelength of 632.8 nm in
742 L. Cai et al. / Science of the Total Environment 628–629 (2018) 740–747

Fig. 1. Three types of plastic pellets in different environments. Plastic pellets are shown in the (a) air environment and the (b) solution environments (i.e., ultrapure water and simulated
seawater (a drop of Prussian blue was added in order to obtain a better visual effect)). (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web
version of this article.)

order to establish their reference spectra. Ranges of the spectra were set
according to their characteristic peaks in the Raman spectrum (i.e.,
1000–1500 cm−1 for PE, 300–1500 cm−1 for PP, and 500–2300 cm−1
for PS), and the integration time was 16 s. Then, 5 items of each type
of weathered plastic pellet were randomly selected and analyzed by
Raman spectroscopy. Three different points (i.e., the central point and
two different edge points) of each sample were examined. Among
these resulting spectra, the representative resulting spectra were se-
lected and compared with their reference spectra.
weathered plastic pellet were studied by scanning electron microscopy
(SEM) on a JEOL JSM-6510 microscope. Because the surface textures of
the weathered plastic pellets were heterogeneous, visualization was re-
peated at different surface sites (i.e., at least three relatively smooth or
rough sites; Wang et al., 2017). In addition, comparisons of the changes
in the surface textures of virgin plastic pellets and weathered plastic
pellets were carried out.
3. Results and discussion

2.4. SEM analysis 3.1. Changes in FTIR spectra

The surface textures of the plastic pellets could be clearly illustrated Three types of plastic pellets treated by different UV irradiation
in SEM images. Thus, 5 items of each type of virgin plastic pellet and times (i.e., blank, 1 month, 2 months and 3 months) in three different

Fig. 2. Experimental setup: (a) a homemade environmental chamber equipped with a UV lamp (UVA340) and (b) a structure diagram of this experimental setup.
 L. Cai et al. / Science of the Total Environment 628–629 (2018) 740–747
environments were analyzed by FTIR spectroscopy. As shown in Fig. 3,
the FTIR spectra showed new absorption peaks that appeared at ap-
proximately 3300 cm−1 and 1712 cm−1 in three types of weathered
plastic pellets in the air and ultrapure water environments after
3 months of UV irradiation, while there was only one set of new absorp-
tion peaks that appeared at approximately 1712 cm−1 in plastic pellets
in the simulated seawater environment. The appearance of new absorp-
tion peaks indicated that hydroxyl groups (OH, ~3300 cm−1) and car-
bonyl groups (C=O, ~1700 cm−1) developed (Zbyszewski and
Corcoran, 2011; Cooper and Corcoran, 2010), and plastic pellets in the
three different environments experienced different levels of chemical
weathering (i.e., photo-oxidative degradation) after UV irradiation. In
addition, the level of chemical weathering of the plastic pellets in the
same environment increased with the exposure time, which could be
a result of the increased absorbance intensity of hydroxyl groups (OH,
~3300 cm−1) and carbonyl groups (C=O, ~1700 cm−1) in the FTIR spec-
tra (shown in Table 1 and Table 2 in S1).
Based on observation of the degradation of identical plastic pellets in
three different environments, it was found that the degradation degree
Fig. 3. FTIR spectra of three types of virgin and weathered plastic pellets (treated by different UV irradiation times, i.e., 1 month, 2 months and 3 months) in three different environments.
743
of identical plastic pellets in the air environment was significantly
higher than that in the solution environments (i.e., simulated seawater
and ultrapure water), which may be related to the exposure level of ox-
ygen in the environment. Compared with the solution environments, a
higher oxygen content was available in the air environment, and the uti-
lization rate of UV light was also higher for the plastic pellets under air
conditions than for those in the solution environments (i.e., light reflec-
tion, diffusion and deflection were relatively low). Thus, the photo-oxi-
dative degradation of the plastic pellets was more effective in the air
environment. In addition, the FTIR spectra also showed that the degra-
dation degree of identical plastic pellets in the ultrapure water solution
(where hydroxyl and carbonyl groups developed) was higher than that
of the plastic pellets in the simulated seawater environment (where
only carbonyl groups developed), which might be associated with a sa-
linity difference between the solution environments. One important
factor affecting the degradation degree is UV light intensity, which
could be affected by the water chemistry. According to the empirical
equation for the refraction index of seawater mentioned by Quan and
Fry (1995), the refractive index of water increases with salinity. Thus,
744 L. Cai et al. / Science of the Total Environment 628–629 (2018) 740–747
for plastic pellets in the simulated seawater environment, the utilization
rate of UV light was relatively low compared with that in the ultrapure
water environment, which led to plastics that degraded more efficiently
in the ultrapure water environment when compared with the simulated
seawater environment.
The mechanism for the plastic pellets in this experiment was
photo-oxidation that was caused by free-radical chain reactions.
For plastics, UV irradiation has sufficient energy to cleave C\\C
bonds (375 kJ/mol) and C\\H bonds (420 kJ/mol) (Singh and
Sharma, 2008; Plotnikov, 1988); thus, parts of the free radicals
formed as a result of cleavage of C\\C bonds and C\\H bonds under
the condition of UV irradiation. In addition, some chromophoric
groups (e.g., several unreacted monomers (C=C), carbonyl groups
(C=O), and hydroperoxide groups (ROOH)) introduced from the
manufacturing of plastics were also initiated by UV irradiation
(Singh and Sharma, 2008), which resulted in the formation of free
radicals and thereby completed the chain initiation reactions. After
a series of complicated chain propagation, chain branching and
chain termination, chain scission and crosslinking occurred in these
polymers. And, hydroxyl groups (OH, ~3300 cm −1) and carbonyl
Fig. 4. Raman spectra of three types of virgin and weathered plastic pellets (treated by different UV irradiation times, i.e., 1 month, 2 months and 3 months) in three different environments.
groups (C=O, ~1700 cm−1) developed after photo-oxidative degra-
dation. In addition, the presence of hydroxyl and carbonyl groups
was found in many environmental plastics according to the reported
literature (Zbyszewski and Corcoran, 2011; Corcoran et al., 2009),
indicating that chemical weathering plays a key role in the degrada-
tion of microplastics in the natural environment.
3.2. Changes in Raman spectra
Three types of plastic pellets that were treated by different UV ir-
radiation times in three different environments were examined
using Raman spectroscopy. As shown in Fig. 4, the Raman spectra
showed that there were no significant changes in the weathered
plastic pellets in the three different environments compared with
the virgin plastic pellets, but there were different intensities in the
characteristic peaks after exposure to UV irradiation. These results
were in accord with Lenz et al., (2015), where both PE and PP
showed a slight reduction in the intensity of characteristic peaks
after exposure to simulated sunlight in air for 1634 h. In addition,
Raman spectroscopy has been widely used in the qualitative analysis
 L. Cai et al. / Science of the Total Environment 628–629 (2018) 740–747
of microplastics (Imhof et al., 2016; Lenz et al., 2015). Because plastic
particles of small size (N1 μm) can be identified by Raman spectros-
copy, it appeared to be a good method for identification. However,
in reality, some inorganic additives added into plastics during the
manufacturing process could interfere with the determination of
plastics (Lenz et al., 2015). Thus, there are some deficiencies in the
Raman analysis for the identification of plastics, especially in the
analysis of aging experiments.
In comparison with Raman spectra, FTIR spectra can directly reflect
the functional groups of polymers. For example, in this experiment,
the formation of polar oxidative functional groups (i.e., the hydroxyl
and carbonyl groups) can be easily observed in the FTIR spectra (Lenz
et al., 2015), but cannot be observed in the Raman spectra. Thus,
whether plastic pellets experienced chemical weathering in the envi-
ronment or not could be easily identified by using the FTIR spectra,
but not by the Raman spectra. However, for suspected plastic particles
experienced a high level of chemical weathering in the environment,
several new oxidative functional groups developed can increase the dif-
ficulty of identification. Thus, the identification methods used for the
analysis of microplastics in the environment need to be improved be-
cause there were several deficiencies in both the FTIR and Raman
analyses.
3.3. Changes in surface textures
SEM images of the three types of plastic pellets treated by differ-
ent UV irradiation times in three different environments were ob-
tained by using SEM. As shown in Fig. 5a, three types of virgin
plastic pellets exhibited relatively homogeneous and compact tex-
tures. In contrast, the weathered plastic pellets exhibited relatively
rough surface textures (Fig. 5b, Fig. S2 and Fig. S3). In the case of the
PE pellets (Fig. 5b), granular oxidation and flakes were found on PE
pellet surfaces after 3 months of UV irradiation. Among these pel-
lets, flakes were apparent after 1 month of UV irradiation, while
granular oxidation appeared on PE pellet surfaces after 2 months
of UV exposure. For the PP pellets (Fig. S2), cracks and flakes were
common patterns of degradation. Cracks were apparent after
1 month of UV exposure in all three different environments. How-
ever, PP cracks in the air environment were obviously thicker than
those in the solution environments after 3 months of UV exposure,
indicating that the level of chemical weathering of the PP pellets
in the air environment was highest among the three different envi-
ronments at the same UV exposure time. In addition, the level of
chemical weathering of the PP pellets illustrated in the SEM images
was consistent with their respective FTIR spectral results (Fig. 3),
where the intensities of the hydroxyl absorption peaks in the air en-
vironment were also stronger than those in the solution environ-
ments. For the PS pellets (Fig. S3), the surfaces of the PS pellets
exposed to UV irradiation for 1 month began to develop flakes,
and the level and range of degradation also increased with exposure
time in all three environments. The abiotic degradation of plastics
can be divided into physical and chemical weathering. Currently,
the degradation of microplastics is mainly based on their surface to-
pographies. In this study, the surface topographies of plastic pellets
only exposed to UV irradiation had similar textures to those in the
natural environment (Zbyszewski et al., 2014; Zbyszewski and
Corcoran, 2011; Cooper and Corcoran, 2010; Corcoran et al.,
2009). However, the mechanisms of degradation need to be further
studied. The selected plastic pellet samples were cut to be observed
by SEM in our study. In other words, these samples were influenced,
to some extent, by physical forces.
In general, there were some differences in the patterns of degra-
dation and the levels of chemical weathering of plastic pellets in
three different environments. Similarly, the level of chemical
weathering of the plastic pellets increased with the exposure time
in all three environments, in other words, this study showed that
745
the exposure time was an important factor in the degradation of
plastics. However, based on the observation of the patterns of degra-
dation of the three types of plastic pellets, it was found that the crack
pattern did not appear on the PE pellet surfaces, which might be re-
lated to insufficient UV exposure time. In Song et al. (2017), crack
patterns appeared on PE after 6 months of UV exposure. In addition,
the common pattern of degradation for PP pellets was also the crack
pattern. The formation of cracks is primarily attributed to continuous
photo-oxidative degradation. In addition, cracks are an extension of
fractures, which act as stress concentrators and fracture loci
(Rabek, 1996; Cooper, 2012); thus, it is possible for cracks to pro-
mote the further degradation of plastic pellets. The common pattern
of degradation of PS pellets was the flake pattern, which involves the
formation of a brittle surface area or layer on plastic pellet surfaces
(Cooper, 2012), where embrittlement occurs on the brittle surface
areas or layers of the plastic pellets.
Cracks and flakes were the common patterns of degradation in the
chemical weathering of plastics. However, plastics with cracks and/or
flakes were prone to experience further fragmentation in the natural
environment (including biotic and abiotic effects), which resulted in
the production of smaller microplastics or nanoplastics.
4. Conclusion
Three types of virgin plastic pellets exposed to UV irradiation in
three different environments for 3 months were carried out. The FTIR
spectra showed that new absorption peaks appeared at approximately
3300 cm−1 and 1712 cm−1 in three types of weathered plastic pellets
under air and ultrapure water environmental conditions after 3 months
of UV irradiation, while only one set of new absorption peaks appeared
at approximately 1712 cm−1 for plastic pellets in the simulated seawa-
ter environment, indicating that hydroxyl groups (OH, ~3300 cm−1)
and carbonyl groups (C=O, ~1700 cm−1) developed, and plastic pellets
in the three different environments experienced different levels of
chemical weathering (i.e., photo-oxidative degradation) after UV irradi-
ation. In contrast, the Raman spectra showed that there were no signif-
icant changes in the weathered plastic pellets in three different
environments compared with the virgin plastic pellets, but there were
different intensities in the characteristic peaks after exposure to UV irra-
diation. Thus, whether the plastic pellets experienced chemical
weathering in the environment or not could be easily identified using
the FTIR spectra, but not the Raman spectra. However, there were sev-
eral deficiencies in both the FTIR and Raman analyses. Thus, identifica-
tion methods for the analysis of microplastics in the environment
need to be improved. In addition, the SEM images illustrated that gran-
ular oxidation, cracks and flakes were common degradation patterns in
the chemical weathering of plastics. Specifically, granular oxidation and
flakes were found on the PE pellet surfaces, cracks and flakes were
found on the PP pellet surfaces, and flakes were found on the PS pellet
surfaces after 3 months of UV exposure. It should be noted that plastics
with cracks and/or flakes were prone to further fragmentation in the
natural environment (including biotic and abiotic effects), resulting in
the production of smaller size microplastics or nanoplastics. Meanwhile,
these experimental results indicated that UV irradiation and oxygen
were important factors in the initiation of the photo-oxidative degrada-
tion of polymers. Observations and comparisons of the degradation of
identical plastic pellets in three different environments revealed that
the level of chemical weathering of plastic pellets was in the following
order: air environment N ultrapure water environment N simulated sea-
water environment. The level of chemical weathering of the plastic pel-
lets increased with the exposure time in all three environments,
indicating that the UV exposure time and the environmental differences
associated with the differences in the utilization rate of UV light, the
salinity and the exposure level of oxygen were the important
factors that affected the degradation degree of plastic pellets. Because
smaller polymers formed by photo-oxidative degradation are more
746 L. Cai et al. / Science of the Total Environment 628–629 (2018) 740–747

Fig. 5. SEM images of the three types of virgin and PE weathered plastic pellets (treated by different UV irradiation times, i.e., 1 month, 2 months and 3 months) in three different
environments. (a) SEM images of the three types of virgin plastic pellets; (b) SEM images of the PE weathered plastic pellets in three different environments (all the SEM images were
obtained by a scanning electron microscope operating at 10 keV and ×1000 magnification).

susceptible to biodegradation, abiotic degradation is expected to pre- are needed; this would help increase our understanding of the source
cede biodegradation (Gewert et al., 2015). Thus, more investigations of microplastics, predict the fate of microplastics in the environment,
on the degradation processes of plastic particles in the environment and evaluate the potential environmental hazards to organisms.
 L. Cai et al. / Science of the Total Environment 628–629 (2018) 740–747
Acknowledgement
This study was financially supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (No. 41676104) and the Science and Technology
Development Program of Dongguan City (No. 2016108101016).
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.
org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.02.079.
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