20200317_Microplastics in the marine environment

 

1. Title, Journal, and Authors

Title: Microplastics in the marine environment

Journal: Marine Pollution Bulletin

Authors: Anthony L. Andrady

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh NC 27659, USA

 

2. Summary

 Microplastics are small plastic particles less than 5mm. They consist of first and second microplastics. The first one is made for some objectives and the second one is degraded one from the first.

 

 The main degradation mechanisms are photodegradation and biodegradation. Since POPs have a very high mass transfer coefficient, they are easily attached to the microplastics. Although the desorption coefficient is not big, when some microorganisms such as algae eat them, they are probably able to eat POPs, too. But, for the deficiency of the research cases, it is needed to do more researches.

 

3. Contact

Dae Seong Jeong / Integrated Ph.D. program

 

Environmental Systems Engineering Lab.

School of Environmental Science & Engineering

Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology

1 Oryong-dong Buk-gu Gwangju, 500-712, Korea

 

Phone : +82-10-2003-7860

E-mail : jeongds92@gist.ac.kr