Abstract
Microplastics are one of the emerging and ubiquitous environmental pollutants. Recent studies have proven their co-existence with pharmaceuticals in the environment wherein microplastics act as a potential vector for the transportation of pharmaceuticals. Both microplastics and pharmaceuticals are charged moieties enriched with diverse functional groups resulting in the possibility of multiple interactions. Major interactions could be electrostatic, hydrogen bonding, and hydrophobic, while minor interactions may occur through π-π interaction, cationic bridging mechanism, van der Waals interaction, partition, and pore-filling mechanism. These interactions have both short- and long-term effects over pharmaceutical sorption on microplastics and possibly, ensuing toxicity. This review analyses and summarises the currently reported interactions between microplastic particles and pharmaceuticals as well as establishes the link to various factors affecting the process, viz. pH, salinity, dissolved organic matter, and physiochemical properties of microplastics.
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Funding
The work was partly supported by the Society of Toxicology Undergraduate Faculty Research grant (principal investigator—Gurjot Kaur—Shoolini University, Solan) and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), New Delhi grant (vide project grant number ICMR-NIREH/BPL/IMP-PJ-44/2021–22/469: principal investigator—Surya Singh, ICMR—NIREH, Bhopal).
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The review was conceptualised by GK. Original draft of the manuscript was written by RU under the guidance of GK. Further editing and finalisation of the manuscript for submission was done by SS and GK. GK and SS share equal corresponding authorship.
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Upadhyay, R., Singh, S. & Kaur, G. Sorption of pharmaceuticals over microplastics’ surfaces: interaction mechanisms and governing factors. Environ Monit Assess 194, 803 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-022-10475-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-022-10475-0