Microplastics: Degradation properties of polymers in the environment
- The accumulation of plastics leaked into the environment achieve a high perception in the last years. It is uncontroversial that often an uncontrolled, high consumption of plastic products and a poor waste management resulted in plastic findings all over in the environment. However, less is known about the relevant pathways and fate of plastic in the environment. Especially plastic fragments smaller 5 mmm, so called microplastics, achieve a high attention, because their amount and risks arising from these fragments are still unknown. The basic mechanisms of plastic or more precise, of different polymer degradation processes are often not considered, resulting in unrealistic statements.
For generation of fundamental understanding of this problem we developed in the last years a fast thermoanalytical method for identification and mass quantification of microplastics in complex samples. The presentation will also give a short introduction about polymer degradation.