Advances in Microplastics: Occurrence, Characterization and Degradation
A special issue of Polymers (ISSN 2073-4360). This special issue belongs to the section "Circular and Green Sustainable Polymer Science".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 April 2025 | Viewed by 239
Special Issue Editors
Interests: biopolymers; biomaterials; polymer degradation; polymer characterization
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The word “microplastic” was coined in 2004 by Thompson et al. to refer microscopic plastic fragments and fibers; however, it was not until 2009 that an upper size limit was proposed to define microplastics as plastic particles smaller than 5 mm. Since then, many works have been published on this topic, most of them focused on environmental and health issues. In this regard, microplastics have been found in all ecosystems on the planet (including the most remote ones), in food, beverages, as well as in human and animal tissues. However, less attention has been paid to elucidating the nature and physicochemical characteristics of microplastics and their implications on the potential hazardousness of these small materials. The wide range of particle sizes, densities, and compositions represents a challenge to characterize the microplastics. This Special Issue covers the isolation of microplastics from different ecosystems and species including the analytical methods for quantifying and identifying them. Papers studying the changes in the chemical composition of microplastics due to natural or artificial weathering will also be welcome, as this will allow not only the identification of partially degraded microplastics but also the study of the undesirable effects of these materials on several organisms.
Dr. Jose Manuel Cervantes-Uc
Dr. Jorge A Uribe-Calderon
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- identification of microplastics
- analytical methods for the analysis of microplastics
- isolation of microplastics from water and other media
- degradation of microplastics
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