Research of methods for Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) biopolymer quantification in soil matrix and soil leachate

abstract

English

Gradual increase of microplastics (MPs) in soils has become an emerging environmental concern, which deserves public attention. In spite of many scientific publications contributing for better knowledge of microplastic fate in the soil system, there is still lack of data to properly understand the transport mechanism and interaction of MPs in the soil matrix. In recent years, bioplastic poly(3 hydroxybutyrate) (P3HB) has become a new potential threat for the soil ecosystem due to its imperfect biodegradation pattern, which may lead to abundance of P3HB microparticles in soil. Up to now, there is no validated scientific method used for the proper quantification of P3HB content in the soil matrix, neither good knowledge about the interaction and the transport processes of P3HB microparticles in the soil matrix.The aim of this study is to develop a method for quantification of P3HB content in soil and water extracts. We have been developing two simple analytical methods. First method is based on chlorophorm extraction followed by UV Vis spectroscopy. Second method is based on thermal decomposition of P3HB in the soil (300 °C) by using muffle furnace. As it has been shown in the pilot experiments, these methods seem to have promising results for the quantification of P3HB content in soil. The main output of this poster is to provide knowledge about the instrumentalization and validity of our given methods. In the future prospects, these given analytical methods can play an important role in the instrumentalization of soil column experiments, which will give new data to determine transport mechanisms of P3HB MPs in the soil profile.

Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate), soil

30. 11. 2021

serbian chemical society

belgrade

978-86-7132-078-8

Book of abstracts/EMEC21

99

99

150

www.emec21.rs