Leaching of Phthalate Esters from Microplastics into Seawater

The work presented in this thesis helps in improving the available knowledge of the leaching process of PAEs from plastics under different environmental conditions. Particularly, in proper assigning the re-adsorption loss in the measurement of total leachates in water. On the other hand, the latest information regarding the distribution of PAEs and plastic waste and their ecological risk in the surface waters of the Red Sea and Sharm Obhur Bay is reported. An improved method for the analysis of PAEs was developed, including the control of blank contamination, and the experimental conditions such as extraction time and temperature were optimized. This information may be useful in the analysis of PAEs where it can be of great importance to obtain a precise determination of plastic additives in the complex environmen