{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,30]],"date-time":"2026-09-30T13:54:35Z","timestamp":1790776475566,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":32,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"12","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,6,18]],"date-time":"2021-06-18T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1623974400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100015962","name":"Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["Bando Ricerca 2019-21, CISUP project \u201cMicro- e nano-plastiche: metodologie di quantificazione, valutazione dell\u2019impatto in ecosistemi marini e lacustri, strategie di remediation ambientale\u201d"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["Bando Ricerca 2019-21, CISUP project \u201cMicro- e nano-plastiche: metodologie di quantificazione, valutazione dell\u2019impatto in ecosistemi marini e lacustri, strategie di remediation ambientale\u201d"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100015962","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100007514","name":"Universit\u00e0 di Pisa","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["PRA project 2020_27 on Micro- and nanoplastics"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["PRA project 2020_27 on Micro- and nanoplastics"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100007514","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Polymers"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Most of the analytical studies focused on microplastics (MPs) are based on the detection and identification of the polymers constituting the particles. On the other hand, plastic debris in the environment undergoes chemical and physical degradation processes leading not only to mechanical but also to molecular fragmentation quickly resulting in the formation of leachable, soluble and\/or volatile degradation products that are released in the environment. We performed the analysis of reference MPs\u2013polymer micropowders obtained by grinding a set of five polymer types down to final size in the 857\u2013509 \u03bcm range, namely high- and low-density polyethylene, polystyrene (PS), polypropylene (PP), and polyethylene terephthalate (PET). The reference MPs were artificially aged in a solar-box to investigate their degradation processes by characterizing the aged (photo-oxidized) MPs and their low molecular weight and\/or highly oxidized fraction. For this purpose, the artificially aged MPs were subjected to extraction in polar organic solvents, targeting selective recovery of the low molecular weight fractions generated during the artificial aging. Analysis of the extractable fractions and of the residues was carried out by a multi-technique approach combining evolved gas analysis\u2013mass spectrometry (EGA\u2013MS), pyrolysis\u2013gas chromatography\u2013mass spectrometry (Py\u2013GC\u2013MS), and size exclusion chromatography (SEC). The results provided information on the degradation products formed during accelerated aging. Up to 18 wt% of extractable, low molecular weight fraction was recovered from the photo-aged MPs, depending on the polymer type. The photo-degradation products of polyolefins (PE and PP) included a wide range of long chain alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, carboxylic acids, and hydroxy acids, as detected in the soluble fractions of aged samples. SEC analyses also showed a marked decrease in the average molecular weight of PP polymer chains, whereas cross-linking was observed in the case of PS. The most abundant low molecular weight photo-degradation products of PS were benzoic acid and 1,4-benzenedicarboxylic acid, while PET had the highest stability towards aging, as indicated by the modest generation of low molecular weight species.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/polym13121997","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,6,18]],"date-time":"2021-06-18T11:19:20Z","timestamp":1624015160000},"page":"1997","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":85,"title":["A Systematic Study on the Degradation Products Generated from Artificially Aged Microplastics"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"given":"Greta","family":"Biale","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry, University of Pisa, 56124 Pisa, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5853-7340","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jacopo","family":"La Nasa","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry, University of Pisa, 56124 Pisa, Italy"},{"name":"National Interuniversity Consortium of Materials Science and Technology, 50121 Florence, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Marco","family":"Mattonai","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry, University of Pisa, 56124 Pisa, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Andrea","family":"Corti","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry, University of Pisa, 56124 Pisa, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Virginia","family":"Vinciguerra","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry, University of Pisa, 56124 Pisa, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3302-7037","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Valter","family":"Castelvetro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry, University of Pisa, 56124 Pisa, Italy"},{"name":"CISUP\u2014Center for the Integration of Scientific Instruments of the University of Pisa, University of Pisa, 56124 Pisa, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Francesca","family":"Modugno","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry, University of Pisa, 56124 Pisa, Italy"},{"name":"CISUP\u2014Center for the Integration of Scientific Instruments of the University of Pisa, University of Pisa, 56124 Pisa, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,6,18]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1596","DOI":"10.1016\/j.marpolbul.2011.05.030","article-title":"Microplastics in the marine environment","volume":"62","author":"Andrady","year":"2011","journal-title":"Mar. 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