Abstract
Styrene oligomers (SOs), of styrene (styrene monomer, SM), 1,3-diphenylpropane (styrene dimer, SD1), 2,4-diphenyl-1-butene (styrene dimer, SD2) and 2,4,6-triphenyl-1-hexene (styrene trimer, ST), had been detected in the natural environments far from industrial area. To confirm SOs formation through thermal decomposition of polystyrene (PS) wastes in the nature, purified polystyrene (SO-free PS) has been shown to decompose at 30 to 150 °C. The SO ratio of SM:SD:ST was about 1:1:5 with ST as the main product. Mass spectrometry with selected ion monitoring was used for the quantitative analysis of the trace amounts of SOs. The rate of PS decomposition was obtained as k(year−1)=5.177 exp(−5029/T(K)) based on the amount of ST. Decomposition kinetics indicated that not only does drifting lump PS break up into micro/nano pieces in the ocean, but that it also subsequently undergoes degradation into basic structure units SO. According to the simulation at 30 °C, the amounts of SOs in the ocean will be over 400 MT in 2050.
Highlights
Total plastic production in the 1950s has been shown to be around several million metric tons, but at present, cumulative production has been estimated as 6.98 × 109 -MT during the period 1950 to 2015 [1,2]
The purity of SD2, ST was determined by gas chromatography (GC) with a flame ionization detector (FID) as 99.8% or more before use
The mass spectrum obtained by GC/MS, Total Ion Monitoring (TIM) was used to determine fragment ion (m/z) of the
Summary
Total plastic production in the 1950s has been shown to be around several million metric tons (million MT), but at present, cumulative production has been estimated as 6.98 × 109 -MT during the period 1950 to 2015 [1,2]. In 2001, Moore et al [4] reported debris plastics to form garbage patches in the Pacific Ocean and to increase by 17-fold (by weight) or 95 times (by pieces) as much the amounts of contaminants in the past 30 years. Thompson et al [5], Takada [6], Lavender [7] and Isobe et al [8] have shown this drifting plastic to break up into a great many small pieces by the action of waves and effects of light to form micro/nanoplastics which in turn lead to massive plastic contamination in bulk. By 2050, debris plastics will have attained a weight exceeding that of all fish throughout the oceans of the world [10]
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