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Microplastics Aggregation, Deposition, and Enhancement of Contaminants Transport

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Handbook of Microplastics in the Environment

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Abstract

The accumulation of microplastics in the environment and especially in the aquatic ecosystems because of human activity is a problem of high ecological importance. Combined effort is required to deal with it due to its special characteristics.

The degradation of plastic items, i.e., the conversion of plastics into smaller molecules in the environment can occur through a variety of physicochemical and biochemical processes. Plastics present high durability and therefore low degradation rates.

Aggregation and deposition of microplastics and nanoplastics can be satisfactorily described through DLVO theory in terms of Van der Waals and electrical double layer forces. Particle aggregation and deposition are governed by particle-particle and particle-surface interactions respectively. Smoluchowski model for aggregation is a very useful tool for modeling the microplastics kinetics in marine environment.

The transport of microplastics is governed by Brownian diffusion while the contribution from gravitational sedimentation becomes important under favorable conditions for aggregation, where the rate of sedimentation of aggregates must be taken into account.

Some microplastics contain chemical additives or have the ability to sorb contaminants already present in the aquatic environment. The accumulation of microplastics in the marine environment can facilitate the transport of these contaminants on local or global scale.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Physics Department, University of Patras, Patras, Greece

    D. P. Korfiatis

Authors
  1. D. P. Korfiatis
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to D. P. Korfiatis .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies (CESAM) and Department of Chemistry, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal

    Teresa Rocha-Santos

  2. Departamento de Oceanografia, Laboratório de Ecologia e Gerenciamento de Ecossistemas Costeiros e Estuarinos, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil

    Monica F. Costa

  3. Faculty of Sciences, Université Catholique de L’Ouest, Angers cedex 01, France

    Catherine Mouneyrac

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Natural Sciences/Chemistry, University of Wisconsin-Superior, Superior, USA

    Lorena M. Rios-Mendoza

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Korfiatis, D.P. (2022). Microplastics Aggregation, Deposition, and Enhancement of Contaminants Transport. In: Rocha-Santos, T., Costa, M.F., Mouneyrac, C. (eds) Handbook of Microplastics in the Environment. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39041-9_8

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