Publication detail

A Simple Method for Quantification of Polyhydroxybutyrate and Polylactic Acid Micro-Bioplastics in Soils by Evolved Gas Analysis

FOJT, J. ROMÁNEKOVÁ, I. PROCHÁZKOVÁ, P. DAVID, J. BRTNICKÝ, M. KUČERÍK, J.

Original Title

A Simple Method for Quantification of Polyhydroxybutyrate and Polylactic Acid Micro-Bioplastics in Soils by Evolved Gas Analysis

Type

journal article in Web of Science

Language

English

Original Abstract

Conventional plastics are being slowly replaced by biodegradable ones to prevent plastic pollution. However, in the natural environment, the biodegradation of plastics is usually slow or incomplete due to unfavorable conditions and leads to faster micro-bioplastic formation. Many analytical methods were developed to determine microplastics, but micro-bioplastics are still overlooked. This work presents a simple method for determining poly-3-hydroxybutyrate and polylactic acid micro-bioplastics in soil based on the thermogravimetry-mass spectrometry analysis of low molecular gases evolved during pyrolysis. For the method development, model soils containing different soil organic carbon contents were spiked with micro-bioplastics. Specific gaseous pyrolysis products of the analytes were identified, while the ratio of their amounts appeared to be constant above the level of detection of the suggested method. The constant ratio was explained as a lower soil influence on the evolution of the gaseous product, and it was suggested as an additional identification parameter. The advantages of the presented method are no sample pretreatment, presumably no need for an internal standard, low temperature needed for the transfer of gaseous products and the possibility of using its principles with other, cheaper detectors. The method can find application in the verification of biodegradation tests and in the monitoring of soils after the application of biodegradable products.

Keywords

microplastics; biodegradable plastics; micro-bioplastics; soil; evolved gas analysis

Authors

FOJT, J.; ROMÁNEKOVÁ, I.; PROCHÁZKOVÁ, P.; DAVID, J.; BRTNICKÝ, M.; KUČERÍK, J.

Released

15. 3. 2022

Publisher

MDPI

Location

BASEL

ISBN

1420-3049

Periodical

MOLECULES

Year of study

27

Number

6

State

Swiss Confederation

Pages from

1

Pages to

16

Pages count

16

URL

https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/27/6/1898

Full text in the Digital Library

http://hdl.handle.net/11012/204460

BibTex

@article{BUT177409,
  author="Jakub {Fojt} and Ivana {Románeková} and Petra {Procházková} and Jan {David} and Martin {Brtnický} and Jiří {Kučerík}",
  title="A Simple Method for Quantification of Polyhydroxybutyrate and Polylactic Acid Micro-Bioplastics in Soils by Evolved Gas Analysis",
  journal="MOLECULES",
  year="2022",
  volume="27",
  number="6",
  pages="1--16",
  doi="10.3390/molecules27061898",
  issn="1420-3049",
  url="https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/27/6/1898"
}