Titel
Heterogeneous Nucleation of Supersaturated Water Vapor onto Sub-10 nm Nanoplastic Particles
Abstract
Nanoplastic pollution by atmospheric transport processes is a recently discovered environmental problem on a global scale that is attributed to the dispersion of aerosolized nanoplastics. However, knowledge about the basic physicochemical properties of aerosol nanoplastic particles is scarce. Here, we present experiments on the heterogeneous nucleation of supersaturated water vapor onto sub-10 nm polyethylene terephthalate (PET) seeds. We determined onset saturation ratios for the activation of PET seeds in comparison to the well-documented reference system of silver particles, resulting in lower onset saturation ratios of the PET seeds compared to silver seeds. By using different PET bulk materials for the generation of nanoparticles, we report a strong material dependence of the onset saturation ratios, pointing to a strong effect of additives from commodity plastics in heterogeneous nucleation. Moreover, our results show a strong dependence on nucleation temperature that might be of immediate atmospheric relevance. Our work can be considered as an initial step in airborne nanoplastic detection by condensation techniques, and we anticipate our study to serve as a basis for further research that will eventually allow assessing the impact of nanoplastic dispersion on atmospheric processes.
Stichwort
heterogeneous nucleationnanoplasticnucleation probabilitywater vapor/aerosolsaturation ratiopolyethylene terephthalate (PET)Size Analyzing Nuclei Counter
Objekt-Typ
Sprache
Englisch [eng]
Persistent identifier
Erschienen in
Titel
Environmental Science & Technology
Band
57
Ausgabe
4
ISSN
0013-936X
Erscheinungsdatum
2023
Seitenanfang
1584
Seitenende
1591
Publication
American Chemical Society (ACS)
Erscheinungsdatum
2023
Zugänglichkeit
Rechte
Rechteangabe
© 2022 The Authors
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