Characterization of Nanoplastics, Fibrils, and Microplastics Released during Washing and Abrasion of Polyester Textiles

Nanoplastics (defined here as plastic particles smaller than 1000 nm) released during the daily use of plastic products are gaining increasing attention due to their potential effects on human and environmental health. Formation of nanoplastics has been reported so far for diverse plastic products under varying conditions of use. The washing of synthetic textiles has been identified as an important source of microplastic fibers (MPF) released to the environment. In addition, abrasion of textiles was shown to induce further fragmentation of fibers and subsequent formation of much smaller and shorter fibrils. The aim of this work was to identify whether washing and wearing of textiles also results in the formation of nanoplastics. We designed washing and abrasion experiments to investigate the morphology, number, and size of micro- and nanoplastics released from polyester textiles. Using a combination of techniques including scanning transmission X-ray microspectroscopy (STXM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA), we were able to quantify nanoplastics (average hydrodynamic diameter 173–188 nm), microplastic fibrils (diameter 3 ± 1 μm, length 20–160 μm), and MPFs (diameter 16 ± 7 μm, length up to 5 mm). The presence of polyester nanoplastics was confirmed by the near edge X-ray absorption fine spectra (NEXAFS) of the nanoparticles in the abrasion and washing samples for particles larger than 100 nm. We estimated that in the abraded samples, 1 g of fleece textile released an average of 2.1× 1011 nanoplastic particles (1.4 mg), 1.4 × 104 MPFs (1.0 mg), and 5.3 × 105 fibrils (0.5 mg) based on SEM images and NTA. In the nonabraded samples, 1 g of textile released an average of 3.3 × 1011 nanoplastic particles (2.1 mg), 2.8 × 103 MPFs (0.2 mg), and no fibrils. The present study is the first to show a significant release of polyester nanoplastics during the washing and abrasion of synthetic textiles.