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How long do nanoplastics remain in sediments? How quickly is nanoplastics transported? Can nanoplastics accumulate permanently? What factors are relevant for transport and accumulation? Taotao Lu and his co-authors Benjamin Gilfedder, Hao Peng, Stefan Peiffer, Georg Papastavrou, Katharina Ottermann and Sven Frei investigated this question in a laboratory column experiment.

50 nm fluorescent polystyrene particles were used as nanoplastics. The glass columns were filled with quartz sand whose surface was coated with 0, 15, 30 or 45 % iron oxide. The effect of iron oxide is exciting because it is very common in natural sediments.

Short summary: Iron oxide hydroxide has an effect on the transport speed of nanoplastics. The more iron oxide was present, the slower the nanoplastic was transported in the column experiment.

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