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Seawater‐Degradable Polymers—Fighting the Marine Plastic Pollution
Polymers shape human life but they also have been identified as pollutants in the oceans due to their long lifetime and low degradability. Recently, various researchers have studied the impact of (micro)plastics on marine life, biodiversity, and potential toxicity. Even if the consequences are still...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
John Wiley and Sons Inc.
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7788598/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33437568 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/advs.202001121 |
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author | Wang, Ge‐Xia Huang, Dan Ji, Jun‐Hui Völker, Carolin Wurm, Frederik R. |
author_facet | Wang, Ge‐Xia Huang, Dan Ji, Jun‐Hui Völker, Carolin Wurm, Frederik R. |
author_sort | Wang, Ge‐Xia |
collection | PubMed |
description | Polymers shape human life but they also have been identified as pollutants in the oceans due to their long lifetime and low degradability. Recently, various researchers have studied the impact of (micro)plastics on marine life, biodiversity, and potential toxicity. Even if the consequences are still heavily discussed, prevention of unnecessary waste is desired. Especially, newly designed polymers that degrade in seawater are discussed as potential alternatives to commodity polymers in certain applications. Biodegradable polymers that degrade in vivo (used for biomedical applications) or during composting often exhibit too slow degradation rates in seawater. To date, no comprehensive summary for the degradation performance of polymers in seawater has been reported, nor are the studies for seawater‐degradation following uniform standards. This review summarizes concepts, mechanisms, and other factors affecting the degradation process in seawater of several biodegradable polymers or polymer blends. As most of such materials cannot degrade or degrade too slowly, strategies and innovative routes for the preparation of seawater‐degradable polymers with rapid degradation in natural environments are reviewed. It is believed that this selection will help to further understand and drive the development of seawater‐degradable polymers. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7788598 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | John Wiley and Sons Inc. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-77885982021-01-11 Seawater‐Degradable Polymers—Fighting the Marine Plastic Pollution Wang, Ge‐Xia Huang, Dan Ji, Jun‐Hui Völker, Carolin Wurm, Frederik R. Adv Sci (Weinh) Reviews Polymers shape human life but they also have been identified as pollutants in the oceans due to their long lifetime and low degradability. Recently, various researchers have studied the impact of (micro)plastics on marine life, biodiversity, and potential toxicity. Even if the consequences are still heavily discussed, prevention of unnecessary waste is desired. Especially, newly designed polymers that degrade in seawater are discussed as potential alternatives to commodity polymers in certain applications. Biodegradable polymers that degrade in vivo (used for biomedical applications) or during composting often exhibit too slow degradation rates in seawater. To date, no comprehensive summary for the degradation performance of polymers in seawater has been reported, nor are the studies for seawater‐degradation following uniform standards. This review summarizes concepts, mechanisms, and other factors affecting the degradation process in seawater of several biodegradable polymers or polymer blends. As most of such materials cannot degrade or degrade too slowly, strategies and innovative routes for the preparation of seawater‐degradable polymers with rapid degradation in natural environments are reviewed. It is believed that this selection will help to further understand and drive the development of seawater‐degradable polymers. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2020-11-23 /pmc/articles/PMC7788598/ /pubmed/33437568 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/advs.202001121 Text en © 2020 The Authors. Published by Wiley‐VCH GmbH This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Reviews Wang, Ge‐Xia Huang, Dan Ji, Jun‐Hui Völker, Carolin Wurm, Frederik R. Seawater‐Degradable Polymers—Fighting the Marine Plastic Pollution |
title | Seawater‐Degradable Polymers—Fighting the Marine Plastic Pollution |
title_full | Seawater‐Degradable Polymers—Fighting the Marine Plastic Pollution |
title_fullStr | Seawater‐Degradable Polymers—Fighting the Marine Plastic Pollution |
title_full_unstemmed | Seawater‐Degradable Polymers—Fighting the Marine Plastic Pollution |
title_short | Seawater‐Degradable Polymers—Fighting the Marine Plastic Pollution |
title_sort | seawater‐degradable polymers—fighting the marine plastic pollution |
topic | Reviews |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7788598/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33437568 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/advs.202001121 |
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