Microplastics are small plastic pieces up to one millimetre long. They can be found in air, water, soil and sediments in different shapes, colours and chemical compositions. Microplastics in the environment can adsorb and accumulate different pollutants, such as pharmaceuticals, persistent organic pollutants and metals. Concentrations of pollutants accumulated on such particles can be 10–100 times higher than the concentrations in the surrounding environment.
The aim of the master's thesis was to evaluate if metals can be adsorbed onto microplastics. We first investigated the adsorption of metals from wastewater onto microplastics, which are obtained from cosmetic products. The morphological properties of this microplastic were characterized by particle size distribution analysis and SEM/EDS analysis. In the second part, we verified the adsorption of cadmium onto microplastics with biofilm, which are the most similar to microplastics in the environment. Adsorption of cadmium is significantly higher on microplastics with biofilm, than on microplastics without it.
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