Identification of Microplastics and Non-Microplastics Released from Masks under Environmental Conditions

Abstract

Single-use plastic masks had been widely used in the background of COVID-19, which became the potential source of microplastics. This study focused on the release and characterization of microplastics and non-plastic microparticles from single-use surgical masks (SMs) under simulated environmental conditions. In this work, we found that most microplastics were released from SMs under UV exposure (120.00 ± 17.44 items/mask). Mechanical abrasion (76.00 ± 22.63 items/mask) and high temperature exposure (68.00 ± 0.00 items/mask) could also significantly promote the release of microplastics contrasted to the control groups (37.33 ± 8.33 items/mask). The main polymer types of microplastics were PP and PET. In addition, the total particles were released from masks as the order of mechanical abrasion (17.42 ± 2.25 × 103 items/mask) > UV exposure (5.12 ± 1.62 × 103 items/mask) > high temperature exposure (4.57 ± 3.47 × 103 items/mask) > control groups (2.83 ± 1.46 × 103 items/mask). Among them, there were varied and complex non-microplastics particles (22 kinds total) detected in the experiments. This study provides help to better understand the potential risk of microplastics and different component types of non-plastic microparticles released from masks under simulated environmental conditions.