Coronas of micro/nano plastics: a key determinant in their risk assessments

As an emerging pollutant in the life cycle of plastic products, micro/nanoplastics (M/NPs) are increasingly being released into the natural environment. Substantial concerns have been raised regarding the environmental and health impacts of M/NPs. Although diverse M/NPs have been detected in natural...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Particle and fibre toxicology 2022-08, Vol.19 (1), p.1-25, Article 55
Main Authors: Cao, Jiayu, Yang, Qing, Jiang, Jie, Dalu, Tatenda, Kadushkin, Aliaksei, Singh, Joginder, Fakhrullin, Rawil, Wang, Fangjun, Cai, Xiaoming, Li, Ruibin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biotransformation
Corona
Coronas
Environmental aspects
Evaluation
Landfill
Life cycles
Micro/nanoplastics
Nanoparticles
Nanotoxicity
Natural environment
Oceans
Organic chemicals
Particulates
Plastic pollution
Plastics
Pollutants
Review
Risk assessment
Rivers
Structure–activity relationship
Toxicity
Toxins
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Summary:As an emerging pollutant in the life cycle of plastic products, micro/nanoplastics (M/NPs) are increasingly being released into the natural environment. Substantial concerns have been raised regarding the environmental and health impacts of M/NPs. Although diverse M/NPs have been detected in natural environment, most of them display two similar features, i.e.,high surface area and strong binding affinity, which enable extensive interactions between M/NPs and surrounding substances. This results in the formation of coronas, including eco-coronas and bio-coronas, on the plastic surface in different media. In real exposure scenarios, corona formation on M/NPs is inevitable and often displays variable and complex structures. The surface coronas have been found to impact the transportation, uptake, distribution, biotransformation and toxicity of particulates. Different from conventional toxins, packages on M/NPs rather than bare particles are more dangerous. We, therefore, recommend seriously consideration of the role of surface coronas in safety assessments. This review summarizes recent progress on the eco–coronas and bio-coronas of M/NPs, and further discusses the analytical methods to interpret corona structures, highlights the impacts of the corona on toxicity and provides future perspectives.
ISSN:1743-8977
1743-8977
DOI:10.1186/s12989-022-00492-9