Plastics in the Environment: The Impact of Weathering on the Fate and Transformations of Aquatic Plastic Debris (2021-10-22)
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Plastics in the Environment: The Impact of Weathering on the Fate and Transformations of Aquatic Plastic Debris (2021-10-22)
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2021
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Abstract
Plastics are a ubiquitous part of everyday life and a central challenge in the
environment. Environmental stresses such as sunlight, temperature
fluctuations, wet/dry cycling or microbial forces affect the longevity or
degradation of plastics. Assessing the fate of plastics under these stresses
allows us to accurately predict the service lifetime of plastics used in
infrastructure (e.g., power cabling/solar panels) or evaluate the extent of the
plastic pollution problem. This talk details the work of quantifying
photochemical and thermal degradation mechanisms of plastics commonly
found in aquatic plastic debris: polyethylene, polypropylene and
polyethylene terephthalate. In this talk, I will focus on the development of a
methodological framework for characterization of the rates and yields of the
chemical transformations within polymers, moving beyond traditional
materials characterization techniques. Additionally, we quantified the
formation of microplastics upon photochemical weathering, applying our
understanding of the chemical photo transformations. Beyond the
transformations of the plastics, we also began to unravel the role plastics
and plastic weathering play on the ecosystem health by monitoring the
sorption of model micropollutants to weathered plastics. Ultimately, this
work strives to quantify the transformations and fate of plastics so as to
design a predictive model of plastic behavior in the environment, which has
implications for accurately assessing the burden of plastics on the
environment but also allows for new polymer design.
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Friday, October 22, 2021, 3:00 p.m.; Chem 200; Dr. Melissa Maurer-Jones, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, University of Minnesota Duluth
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Fall 2021 Seminar Series
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Maurer-Jones, Melissa; University of Minnesota Duluth. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. (2021). Plastics in the Environment: The Impact of Weathering on the Fate and Transformations of Aquatic Plastic Debris (2021-10-22). Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/227589.
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