LSU, PNNL Research Team Study Microplastics in the Atmosphere
November 14, 2024
BATON ROUGE, LA – Microplastics are sub-millimeter-sized plastic fragments, similar to or smaller than the thickness of a human hair, that present a relatively new and increasingly prevalent type of environmental pollutant. In fact, they have been widely detected in the air we breathe and at altitudes where clouds form.
In a new paper by LSU Chemical Engineering Professor Bhuvnesh Bharti published in Nature Communications, he and his co-authors detail their work investigating how the weathering of microplastics could impact their ability to take up water and nucleate ice under atmospheric conditions. Their findings reveal a couple of conclusions.
First, that microplastics, like other small atmospheric particles, have the potential to attract water molecules and initiate ice crystal formation under atmospheric conditions. Second, that microplastics are not currently abundant enough in the atmosphere to affect weather patterns, but their behavior in cloud formation and precipitation processes could significantly impact their distribution and deposition across various regions.
“By understanding how weathered microplastics interact with atmospheric water and ice, we gain critical insights into their transport and deposition, which can result in their accumulation in remote areas and sensitive ecosystems, including those that directly support our food chain,” Bharti said. “This project aims to improve our understanding of microplastic behavior in the environment, providing a platform for developing new methods to remove these pollutants and reduce their impact on human health and natural ecosystems.”
Brahana, lead author on the paper, added that the next steps for the project will include investigating how the chemical composition of airborne plastics influences their behaviors, offering new insights into the environmental pathways and potential impacts of their journeys. This understanding of their chemistry and physics will guide the development of innovative strategies for an effective removal from the environment.
Bharti’s co-authors on the paper are Philip Brahana, LSU Engineering Sciences graduate student; Mingyi Zhang, postdoctoral research associate at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; and Elias Nakouzi, research scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Nature Communications is a prestigious publication and has an acceptance rate of only 7.7%, receiving more than 50,000 submissions a year. Sufficed to say, having this paper accepted for publication is a large feather in the cap of Bharti and his co-authors.
“Being published in Nature Communications is an honor that highlights the value of our work,” Bharti said. “This achievement was made possible through the support of the Cain Department of Chemical Engineering at LSU and the U.S. National Science Foundation, providing a respected platform to share our findings with the broader scientific community. This publication motivates us further to continue exploring the unknowns in the field of microplastic research.”
The 3D atomic force microscopy measurements and data analysis reported in the article were supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Basic Energy Sciences.
To read the full paper, click here.
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