Evaluating the potential of microplastics and natural organic matter for sorption of hydrophobic organic contaminants based on selected properties

Interest in microplastic behaviour as vectors for hydrophobic organic pollutants has increased in the literature over recent years, however these materials constitute only one of many organic particulate groups in the environment able to compete for pollutants. This review examines particle characteristics including size, surface area, porosity, and age, and how these may influence natural organic particle and microplastic sorption capacity. The impacts these particles manifest as contaminant vectors to biota are also discussed, along with additional chemical and environmental factors that play a role in favour of each particle type. Microplastics are primarily considered to behave as more ideal sorbent due to their hydrophobic nature and acceptable size range below that considered as “particulate” organic matter, however the abundance of these anthropogenic pollutants in comparison to their natural counterparts and their initial hydrophobicity makes their risk as a vector far less prominent than the latter group