Bubble-mediated generation of airborne nanoplastic particles

Abstract

Micro- and nanoplastic particles have been detected in most environmental compartments. The presence of microplastics in the remote marine atmosphere and close to large lakes suggests bubble mediated water–air transfer as a source of airborne microplastics, however, quantitative estimates of plastic emission from surface waters remain uncertain. In this work, we elucidate the emission of submicron polystyrene nanospheres by bubble bursting in a laboratory setting from low salinity waters (salinity 0–1.0 g kg⁻¹), polystyrene particle diameter (103, 147 and 269 nm), aqueous particle number concentrations in the range 4 × 10⁷–2 × 10⁹ cm⁻³, and bubble formation rate (0.88–3.35 L min⁻¹ of air). Production of polystyrene aerosols was demonstrated using a scanning mobility particle sizer and confirmed by analysis of filter samples using pyrolysis gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. We show that production of polystyrene aerosol particles scales linearly with the number concentration of plastic particles in the water. Our results suggest that small amounts (0.01 g kg⁻¹) of salt increase polystyrene particle production. To the best of our knowledge this is the first study of bubble mediated water–air transfer of plastic particles as small as 100 nm.