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Tire Abrasion as a Major Source of Microplastics in the Environment
- Source :
- Aerosol and Air Quality Research. 18:2014-2028
- Publication Year :
- 2018
- Publisher :
- Taiwan Association for Aerosol Research, 2018.
-
Abstract
- Traffic-related non-exhaust particulate matter mainly consists of tire wear, brake wear, and road wear. For this study, passive-samplers were placed near highly frequented roads in industrial, agricultural, and urban environments with the aim of collecting and characterizing super-coarse (> 10 µm) airborne particles. Single-particle analysis using SEM-EDX was conducted on more than 500 particles with nearly 1500 spectra to determine their size, shape, volume, and chemical composition. The ambient aerosol near all studied roads is dominated by traffic-related abrasion particles, amounting to approximately 90 vol%. The majority of the particles were composites of tire-, road-, and brake-abrasion material. The particle assemblages differed in size distribution, composition, and structure depending on driving speed, traffic flow, and traffic fleet. Our study documents that tire wear significantly contributes to the flux of microplastics into the environment. A decrease in the release of this abrasion material, however, is unlikely in the near future.
- Subjects :
- Microplastics
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
Environmental engineering
010501 environmental sciences
Particulates
01 natural sciences
Pollution
Aerosol
Abrasion (geology)
Flux (metallurgy)
Volume (thermodynamics)
Environmental Chemistry
Particle
Environmental science
Chemical composition
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 20711409 and 16808584
- Volume :
- 18
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Aerosol and Air Quality Research
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........a9463ef12e2398ab3307aafbeee7609a