MSc Student
My Masters thesis involves research surrounding nanoplastics in the aquatic environment. As plastic production increases globally, the amount of plastic waste in waterways increases. Higher concentrations of nanoplastics in aquatic environments has aroused concern as they have been known to amplify the uptake of contaminants via the Trojan Horse effect. Contaminants bound to nanoplastics can be taken up into organisms via ingestion, tissue penetration or trophic transfer. I am interested in analyzing the uptake kinetics of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) when they are in the presence of nanoplastics. This work will involve radiolabelling, which has not been used in regards to this topic, to increase accuracy of results. Various PAHs will differ in their binding affinities to the nanoplastics, I hope to develop a model that will describe the uptake kinetics of various PAHs when exposed to different sizes of nanoplastics.