TY - JOUR A1 - Bandow, Nicole A1 - Will, Verena A1 - Wachtendorf, Volker A1 - Simon, Franz-Georg T1 - Contaminant release from aged microplastic T2 - Environmental Chemistry N2 - Recycled plastic granules of high-density polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride and polystyrene the size of microplastics were exposed to artificial aging conditions (2000 h; photooxidative and thermo-oxidative) to simulate their fate outdoors. Their potential to leach into water during the aging process was investigated using column percolation tests. Aging-related changes on the surface of the material were characterised by IR measurements indicating oxidation reactions with the formation of new adsorption bands (C=O, C–O and OH), especially in the case of photooxidative aging. These findings were confirmed by the identification of leachable organic compounds. Leaching of total organic carbon, Cl, Ca, Cu and Zn is clearly affected by changes due to aging, and their release is increased after photooxidative aging. In general, exposure to photooxidative conditions shows a greater influence on aging and thus on leaching and seems to be the more important mechanism for the aging of microplastic in the environment. Comparison with the total content of inorganic species revealed that, for most elements, less than 3% of the total content is released after 2000 h of photooxidative aging. KW - Column percolation tests KW - Heavy metals KW - Photo-oxidation KW - Thermo-oxidation PY - 2017 UR - https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bam/frontdoor/index/index/docId/43222 AN - OPUS4-43222 SN - 1448-2517 SN - 1449-8979 VL - 14 IS - 6 SP - 394 EP - 405 AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany