The unique construction that makes plastic so useful also makes it prone to forming hazardous micro- and nanoscopic shards.
The unique construction that makes plastic so useful also makes it prone to forming hazardous micro- and nanoscopic shards.
The world is littered with trillions of micro- and nanoscopic pieces of plastic. These can be smaller than a virus — just the right size to disrupt cells and even alter DNA. Researchers find them almost everywhere they’ve looked, from Antarctic snow to human blood.
In a new study, scientists have delineated the molecular process that causes these small pieces to break off in such large quantities. Since hitting the market 75 years ago, plastic has become ubiquitous — and so, presumably, have nanoplastics. As it turns out, the qualities that make plastic strong and flexible also make it prone to forming nanoplastics - this is true for 75-80% of all plastics used, which are termed as semicrystalline polymers in the community. Sanat Kumar, Michael Bykhovsky and Charo Gonzalez-Bykhovsky Professor of Chemical Engineering at Columbia Engineering, led the research effort.
Read more at Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science
Photo Credit: Hamsterfreund via Pixabay
