Dance Your PhD 2021 [BIOLOGY WINNER] - Ocean’s Plastic PhotoDegradation

“Ocean’s Plastic PhotoDegradation“ is taken from Fanon JULIENNE’s doctoral thesis: “Fragmentation of plastics: effect of the environment and the nature of the polymer on the size and shape of the generated fragments“ Plastic waste have been accumulating for several decades in the oceans where they break up into particles called microplastics when their size is less than 5 mm. These microplastics are found in all earth’s water, in sediments and in many marine organisms. Their long-term physico-chemical fate and their possible fragmentation into nanoplastics are complex, still poorly documented and require laboratory studies. In order to understand the processes related to photodegradation and fragmentation of polymers, but also in order to understand the evolution of these fragments during irradiation, an accelerated aging protocol in abiotic conditions has been set up. The oxidation and fragmentation of two model polymers, low density polyethylene and polypropylene, were monitored using spectroscopic techn