The DOI matches its Crossref record; 140 of the 140 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Understanding plastic degradation and microplastic formation in the environment: A review
Abstract
Plastic waste are introduced into the environment inevitably and their exposure in the environment causes deterioration in mechanical and physicochemical properties and leads to the formation of plastic fragments, which are considered as microplastics when their size is < 5 mm. In recent years, microplastic pollution has been reported in all kinds of environments worldwide and is considered a potential threat to the health of ecosystems and humans. However, knowledge on the environmental degradation of plastics and the formation of microplastics is still limited. In this review, potential hotspots for the accumulation of plastic waste were identified, major mechanisms and characterization methods of plastic degradation were summarized, and studies on the environmental degradation of plastics were evaluated. Future research works should further identify the key environmental parameters and properties of plastics affecting the degradation in order to predict the fate of plastics in different environments and facilitate the development of technologies for reducing plastic pollution. Formation and degradation of microplastics, including nanoplastics, should receive more research attention to assess their fate and ecological risks in the environment more comprehensively.
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Cites
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Cited by
Cai, Z., Li, M., Zhu, Z., Wang, X., Huang, Y., Li, T., Gong, H., & Yan, M. (2023) · Microorganisms · doi:10.3390/microorganisms11071661 · Cited by 452
Raman Microspectroscopy evidence of microplastics in human semen
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Microplastics in urban runoff: Global occurrence and fate
Wang, C., O'Connor, D., Wang, L., Wu, W.-M., Luo, J., & Hou, D. (2022) · Water Research · doi:10.1016/j.watres.2022.119129 · Cited by 216
Plastic Waste Recycling, Applications, and Future Prospects for a Sustainable Environment
Maitlo, G., Ali, I., Maitlo, H. A., Ali, S., Unar, I. N., Ahmad, M. B., Bhutto, D. K., Karmani, R. K., Naich, S. U. R., Sajjad, R. U., et al. (2022) · Sustainability · doi:10.3390/su141811637 · Cited by 143
Timilsina, A., Adhikari, K., Yadav, A. K., Joshi, P., Ramena, G., & Bohara, K. (2023) · Science of The Total Environment · doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.164999 · Cited by 104
Metadata
- Authors
- Zhang, K., Hamidian, A. H., Tubić, A., Zhang, Y., Fang, J. K. H., Wu, C., & Lam, P. K. S.
- Venue
- Environmental Pollution
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2021-04
- Volume
- 274
- Pages
- 116554
- ISSN
- 0269-7491 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3122119529
- Cited by
- 1,539
- References
- 140
- FWCI
- 49.67
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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- Zhang, K., Hamidian, A. H., Tubić, A., Zhang, Y., Fang, J. K. H., Wu, C., & Lam, P. K. S. (2021). Understanding plastic degradation and microplastic formation in the environment: A review. Environmental Pollution. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2021.116554
Data sources
Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
