Abstract
The physical-chemical characterization of plastic litter from the marine environment requires the prior removal of the biofouling attached to their surface without causing any degradation in the polymer. The absence of a standardized protocol for digesting biofouling and organic matter of both macro and microplastic samples extracted from seawater has been the main motivation for this research work, which aims to evaluate the effectiveness of different solvents (hydrogen peroxide, ethanol, a commercial enzymatic detergent, and potassium hydroxide) for the digestion of organic matter and biofouling in different samples recovered from the Spanish Atlantic and Mediterranean coast. Moreover, the potential effect of those solvents on the physical-chemical structure of polymers, four virgin plastic reference materials (low-density polyethylene, polyamide, poly(ethylene terephthalate) and polystyrene) without any type of prior degradation has been characterized in terms of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and optical microscopy. Results indicate that the hydrogen peroxide at 15% concentration applied for one week at 40 °C is the most effective solvent for organic matter and biofouling removal, without causing any apparent damage on the structure of plastic samples analyzed.
Highlights
Marine plastic litter includes an increasing number of materials on which biofouling can develop
H2 O2 showed the best performance for removing organic matter and algae fibers for aquarium samples (AQ) and Marine Plastic Samples (MS) samples (Table 1), as suggested by Gago et al (2018) [7]
Applying higher solvent concentrations or treatment temperatures is not recommended in these cases, as they may cause degradation of some polymers [4,16]
Summary
Marine plastic litter includes an increasing number of materials on which biofouling can develop. Biofouling or biological fouling is the non-desirable accumulation of deposits, especially living organisms, on artificial wetted surfaces. It can be classified into microfouling (biofilm and bacterial adhesion) and macrofouling (attachment of larger organisms like invertebrates and macroalgae) [1]. For determining the degradation level of plastics from the marine environment according to different parameters (loss of mass of the polymer, fragmentation coefficient, degree of oxidation of the material, etc.) by gravimetry, FTIR, optical microscopy or tensile tests, it becomes necessary to clean their surface from any external material [3].
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