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Pyrolysis Process of Mixed Microplastics Using TG-FTIR and TED-GC-MS

Microplastics have become a ubiquitous contaminant in the environment. The present study focuses on the identification, characterization, and quantification techniques for tracking microplastics. Due to their unique compositional structure, unambiguous identification of individual polymers in variou...

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Autores principales: Cho, Min-Hyun, Song, Yu-Jin, Rhu, Chan-Joo, Go, Byung-Rye
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9824846/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36616592
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym15010241
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author Cho, Min-Hyun
Song, Yu-Jin
Rhu, Chan-Joo
Go, Byung-Rye
author_facet Cho, Min-Hyun
Song, Yu-Jin
Rhu, Chan-Joo
Go, Byung-Rye
author_sort Cho, Min-Hyun
collection PubMed
description Microplastics have become a ubiquitous contaminant in the environment. The present study focuses on the identification, characterization, and quantification techniques for tracking microplastics. Due to their unique compositional structure, unambiguous identification of individual polymers in various plastic samples, usually comprised of mixtures of individual polymers, remains a challenge. Therefore, there is limited research on the pyrolysis characterization of mixed samples. In this study, two analytical methods, TG-FTIR and TED-GC-MS combined with thermogravimetric analysis were used to evaluate the thermal-degradation process of individual and mixed samples of polypropylene (PP), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and polyvinyl chloride (PVC). The primary interaction was the volatilization of terephthalic acid bound to chlorine molecules. The reduction of vinyl-ester functional groups and aromatic hydrocarbon intermediates related to olefin branching was confirmed. Char formation was increased, due to aromatic compounds from PET and PVC. All of the polymers used in the study may be underestimated in quantity, due to combined volatilizations during pyrolysis. TG-FTIR and TED-GC-MS showed forceful advantages in identifying mixed microplastics through different discrimination mechanisms. The study provides deep insight into pyrolysis behaviors and the interactions of mixed polymers, and the obtained results can help better comprehend the complex pyrolysis process.
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spelling pubmed-98248462023-01-08 Pyrolysis Process of Mixed Microplastics Using TG-FTIR and TED-GC-MS Cho, Min-Hyun Song, Yu-Jin Rhu, Chan-Joo Go, Byung-Rye Polymers (Basel) Article Microplastics have become a ubiquitous contaminant in the environment. The present study focuses on the identification, characterization, and quantification techniques for tracking microplastics. Due to their unique compositional structure, unambiguous identification of individual polymers in various plastic samples, usually comprised of mixtures of individual polymers, remains a challenge. Therefore, there is limited research on the pyrolysis characterization of mixed samples. In this study, two analytical methods, TG-FTIR and TED-GC-MS combined with thermogravimetric analysis were used to evaluate the thermal-degradation process of individual and mixed samples of polypropylene (PP), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and polyvinyl chloride (PVC). The primary interaction was the volatilization of terephthalic acid bound to chlorine molecules. The reduction of vinyl-ester functional groups and aromatic hydrocarbon intermediates related to olefin branching was confirmed. Char formation was increased, due to aromatic compounds from PET and PVC. All of the polymers used in the study may be underestimated in quantity, due to combined volatilizations during pyrolysis. TG-FTIR and TED-GC-MS showed forceful advantages in identifying mixed microplastics through different discrimination mechanisms. The study provides deep insight into pyrolysis behaviors and the interactions of mixed polymers, and the obtained results can help better comprehend the complex pyrolysis process. MDPI 2023-01-03 /pmc/articles/PMC9824846/ /pubmed/36616592 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym15010241 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Cho, Min-Hyun
Song, Yu-Jin
Rhu, Chan-Joo
Go, Byung-Rye
Pyrolysis Process of Mixed Microplastics Using TG-FTIR and TED-GC-MS
title Pyrolysis Process of Mixed Microplastics Using TG-FTIR and TED-GC-MS
title_full Pyrolysis Process of Mixed Microplastics Using TG-FTIR and TED-GC-MS
title_fullStr Pyrolysis Process of Mixed Microplastics Using TG-FTIR and TED-GC-MS
title_full_unstemmed Pyrolysis Process of Mixed Microplastics Using TG-FTIR and TED-GC-MS
title_short Pyrolysis Process of Mixed Microplastics Using TG-FTIR and TED-GC-MS
title_sort pyrolysis process of mixed microplastics using tg-ftir and ted-gc-ms
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9824846/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36616592
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym15010241
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