Abstract
Microplastics have gained considerable attention as a growing environmental problem owing to their potential to serve as vectors for harmful chemicals. However, the leaching of these chemicals from microplastics is unclear. In this study, we investigated the leaching of two organophosphate flame retardants, triphenyl phosphate and tri-n-butyl phosphate, from polystyrene microplastics in simulated digestive fluids and water, and polypropylene microplastics were simultaneously used for comparison with polystyrene microplastics. The results indicated that the first-order kinetic model best explained the leaching process, suggesting that leaching was related to the release of organophosphate flame retardant molecules at the polymer surface. Additionally, the size and crystalline state of the microplastics had a significant effect on the leaching, whereas organophosphate flame retardant content had a minimal impact. Simulated digestive fluids facilitated the leaching to a different extent, and under these influencing conditions, leaching percentages from polystyrene microplastics did not exceed 0.51%. Therefore, leaching from PS microplastics may not be an important source of OPFRs in the environment. However, the release of organophosphate flame retardants can be considerably enhanced with the breakdown of polystyrene microplastics to polystyrene nanoplastics.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data Availability
The data will be provided upon a reasonable request to the corresponding author.
References
Ajith N, Arumugam S, Parthasarathy S, Manupoori S, Janakiraman S (2020) Global distribution of microplastics and its impact on marine environment—a review. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27(21):25970–25986. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-09015-5
Cao Y, Lin H, Zhang K, Xu S, Yan M, Leung KMY, Lam PKS (2022) Microplastics: a major source of phthalate esters in aquatic environments. J Hazard Mater 432:128731. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2022.128731
Carlsson H, Nilsson U, Östman C (2000) Video display units: an emission source of the contact allergenic flame retardant triphenyl phosphate in the indoor environment. Environ Sci Technol 34(18):3885–3889. https://doi.org/10.1021/es990768n
Catarci Carteny C, Amato ED, Pfeiffer F, Christia C, Estoppey N, Poma G, Covaci A, Blust R (2023) Accumulation and release of organic pollutants by conventional and biodegradable microplastics in the marine environment. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30(31):77819–77829. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-27887-1
Chen W, Gong Y, McKie M, Almuhtaram H, Sun J, Barrett H, Yang D, Wu M, Andrews RC, Peng H (2022a) Defining the chemical additives driving in vitro toxicities of plastics. Environ Sci Technol 56(20):14627–14639. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c03608
Chen X, Ma J, Yu R, Hu G, Yan Y (2022b) Bioaccessibility of microplastic-associated heavy metals using an in vitro digestion model and its implications for human health risk assessment. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29(51):76983–76991. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-20983-8
Cheng H, Luo H, Hu Y, Tao S (2020) Release kinetics as a key linkage between the occurrence of flame retardants in microplastics and their risk to the environment and ecosystem: a critical review. Water Res 185:116253. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2020.116253
De Rosa C, Auriemma F (2006) Structure and physical properties of syndiotactic polypropylene: a highly crystalline thermoplastic elastomer. Prog Polym Sci 31(2):145–237. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.progpolymsci.2005.11.002
Dhavamani J, Beck AJ, Gledhill M, El-Shahawi MS, Kadi MW, Ismail IMI, Achterberg EP (2022) The effects of salinity, temperature, and UV irradiation on leaching and adsorption of phthalate esters from polyethylene in seawater. Sci Total Environ 838:155461. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.155461
Dou W, Zhang Z, Huang W, Wang X, Zhang R, Wu Y, Sun A, Shi X, Chen J (2022) Contaminant occurrence, spatiotemporal variation, and ecological risk of organophosphorus flame retardants (OPFRs) in Hangzhou Bay and east China sea ecosystem. Chemosphere 303:135032. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2022.135032
Europe P (2021) Plastics–the Facts 2021 An analysis of European plastics production, demand and waste data. Association of Plastic Manufacturers, Brussels, Belgium, pp 1–15. Retrieved January 3, 2023, from https://plasticseurope.org/knowledge-hub/plastics-the-facts-2021/
Guo H, Zheng X, Luo X, Mai B (2020) Leaching of brominated flame retardants (BFRs) from BFRs-incorporated plastics in digestive fluids and the influence of bird diets. J Hazard Mater 393:122397. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.122397
Hahladakis JN, Velis CA, Weber R, Iacovidou E, Purnell P (2018) An overview of chemical additives present in plastics: migration, release, fate and environmental impact during their use, disposal and recycling. J Hazard Mater 344:179–199. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2017.10.014
He P, Ling Y, Yong W, Yao M, Zhang Y, Feng X, Zhang Y, Zhang F (2022) Determination of 22 alternative plasticizers in wrap film by solid phase extraction and ultra-high performance supercritical fluid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. J Chromatogr A 1669:462916. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chroma.2022.462916
Kajiwara N, Noma Y, Takigami H (2011) Brominated and organophosphate flame retardants in selected consumer products on the Japanese market in 2008. J Hazard Mater 192(3):1250–1259. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2011.06.043
Kasmuri N, Tarmizi NAA, Mojiri A (2022) Occurrence, impact, toxicity, and degradation methods of microplastics in environment—a review. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29(21):30820–30836. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-18268-7
Liu P, Wu X, Liu H, Wang H, Lu K, Gao S (2020) Desorption of pharmaceuticals from pristine and aged polystyrene microplastics under simulated gastrointestinal conditions. J Hazard Mater 392:122346. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.122346
Liu X, Shi H, Xie B, Dionysiou DD, Zhao Y (2019) Microplastics as both a sink and a source of bisphenol A in the marine environment. Environ Sci Technol 53(17):10188–10196. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.9b02834
O’Brien S, Rauert C, Ribeiro F, Okoffo ED, Burrows SD, O’Brien JW, Wang X, Wright SL, Thomas KV (2023) There’s something in the air: a review of sources, prevalence and behaviour of microplastics in the atmosphere. Sci Total Environ 874:162193. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162193
Pan Y, Liu S, Lin L, Cheng Y, Hou R, Li H, Yuan Z, Xu X (2022) Release behaviors of hexabromocyclododecanes from expanded polystyrene microplastics in seawater and digestive fluids. Gondwana Research 108:133–143. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gr.2021.10.030
Pantelaki I, Voutsa D (2019) Organophosphate flame retardants (OPFRs): a review on analytical methods and occurrence in wastewater and aquatic environment. Sci Total Environ 649:247–263. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.08.286
Qiu S, Huang G, Fang G, Li X, Lei D, Shi W, Xie L, Ying G (2022) Chemical characteristics and toxicological effects of leachates from plastics under simulated seawater and fish digest. Water Res 209:117892. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2021.117892
Rani M, Shim WJ, Jang M, Han GM, Hong SH (2017) Releasing of hexabromocyclododecanes from expanded polystyrenes in seawater -field and laboratory experiments. Chemosphere 185:798–805. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2017.07.042
Suhrhoff TJ, Scholz-Böttcher BM (2016) Qualitative impact of salinity, UV radiation and turbulence on leaching of organic plastic additives from four common plastics — a lab experiment. Mar Pollut Bull 102(1):84–94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2015.11.054
Sun B, Hu Y, Cheng H, Tao S (2019) Releases of brominated flame retardants (BFRs) from microplastics in aqueous medium: kinetics and molecular-size dependence of diffusion. Water Res 151:215–225. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2018.12.017
Sun B, Zeng EY (2022) Leaching of PBDEs from microplastics under simulated gut conditions: chemical diffusion and bioaccumulation. Environ Pollut 292:118318. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2021.118318
Vo HC, Pham MH (2021) Ecotoxicological effects of microplastics on aquatic organisms: a review. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28(33):44716–44725. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-14982-4
Wang Y, Yang Y, Zhang Y, Tan F, Li Q, Zhao H, Xie Q, Chen J (2019) Polyurethane heat preservation materials: the significant sources of organophosphorus flame retardants. Chemosphere 227:409–415. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2019.04.085
Xie B, Qin J, Sun H, Wang S, Li X (2021) Leaching behavior of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from oil-based residues of shale gas drill cuttings. Environ Pollut 288:117773. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2021.117773
Xu X, Guo J, Gao Y, Xue Y, Shi X, Zhang L, Zhang Q, Peng M (2023) Leaching behavior and evaluation of zebrafish embryo toxicity of microplastics and phthalates in take-away plastic containers. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30(8):21104–21114. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-23675-5
Yan Y, Zhu F, Zhu C, Chen Z, Liu S, Wang C, Gu C (2021) Dibutyl phthalate release from polyvinyl chloride microplastics: influence of plastic properties and environmental factors. Water Res 204:117597. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2021.117597
Zuo L, Li H, Lin L, Sun Y, Diao Z, Liu S, Zhang Z, Xu X (2019) Sorption and desorption of phenanthrene on biodegradable poly(butylene adipate co-terephtalate) microplastics. Chemosphere 215:25–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2018.09.173
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Prof. Guobin Yi and Assoc. Prof. Xihong Ju for helping to prepare microplastics with OPFRs.
Funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21707146, 21906107), Science and Technology Program of Guangzhou, China (No. 202102021066, 201904010429), and Doctoral Research Initiation Fund of Liaoning Province (2021-BS-159).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
LZ: conceptualization, formal analysis, data curation, visualization, writing—original draft, and funding acquisition. YL: methodology and investigation. WH and FW: investigation. YF: supervision. ZZ: writing—review and editing, supervision, and funding acquisition
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Ethics approval and consent to participate
Not applicable.
Consent for publication
Not applicable.
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Responsible Editor: Ester Heath
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary information
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Zuo, L., Li, Y., Hou, W. et al. Leaching of triphenyl phosphate and tri-n-butyl phosphate from polystyrene microplastics: influence of plastic properties and simulated digestive fluids. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 114659–114666 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-30229-w
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-30229-w