Abundance and Fate of Synthetic Materials in Atmospheric sub-10 µm Particles

As one of the major global problems of our society, micro- and nanoplastics including tire and road wear particles (TRWPs) are considered as emerging and persistent since they could be detected in many environmental compartments such as water, soil and the ambient atmosphere. TRWP are considered to be a non-tailpipe traffic emission with a generated mass of 1.3 Mt/a for the European Union, assumed to be the main source of synthetic polymers in the environment. Whereas the majority of studies have focused on the non-airborne pollution, less is known about the particles emitted into the atmosphere. However, MP and tire-related chemicals were detected in the coarse PM10 (particle diameter below 10 µm) and fine PM2.5 fraction (particle diameter below 2.5 µm) collected in urban and rural areas and even in remote areas such as the Alps.
Within the project “AirPlast”, funded by the German Leibniz Association and lead by TROPOS ACD, analytical methods are being developed to detect and quantify such synthetic polymers in aerosol samples. Together with modelling approaches, their potential sources and atmospheric transportation will be retraced. Atmospheric aging and fate will be investigated by dedicated laboratory experiments.

Contact:

Volkwin Kuntz volkwin.kuntz@ufz.de
Dr. Daniel Zahn daniel.zahn@ufz.de
Prof. Dr. Thorsten Reemtsma thorsten.reemtsma@ufz.de
Project partner:
Prof. Dr. Hartmut Herrmann
Dr. Dieter Fischer