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Abstract: Plastics are based on organic polymers that are sensitive to the environment in which they find themselves and will gradually decay through a variety of chemical reactions. This process is of great importance for the transformation and persistence of microplastics (MPs) that pollute the environment. The rate of degradation depends on two major factors: Firstly, the intrinsic properties of the polymers, such as chemical structure, molecular weight, crystallinity and the presence of additives, fillers or reinforcement and secondly, the environment to which they are exposed. The degradation rate of plastic will vary in different environmental matrices like soil, freshwater, seawater, wastewater, land etc., as well as in diverse environmental conditions like UV radiation, temperature, humidity, the effect of pollutants etc. Plastic mainly undergoes two fundamental reactions: oxidation and hydrolysis and the chemical structure of the polymer and its additives plays a key role in the degradation mechanism of plastic. Polyolefins having a carbon-only main chain are resistant to hydrolysis but susceptible to oxidation, whereas polyesters and polyamides containing heteroatoms are sensitive to hydrolysis and much more resistant to oxidation. In the context of the present work, five different studies were done involving both naturally degraded plastic and accelerated weathering of plastics in the form of small particles, MPs. In the first study, natural degraded polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) samples with a life span of more than forty years were collected from the environment and their physiochemical properties were analysed. The results show that red coloured PE samples were more degraded as compared to blue coloured samples, indicating that pigment plays a key role in the degradation. The PP sample shows extreme surface degradation, leading to fragmentation and the generation of MPs. In the second study, the effect of hydrodynamic cavitation on MPs in waste water treatment plant sludge was evaluated. PE, PP, polyethylene terephthalate and polyamide were extracted from the sludge. It was found that hydrodynamic cavitation does not disintegrate the MPs, although it removes some toxic metals and shows cell disruption mechanisms. Other studies were done with accelerated weathered MPs, which include PE, PP and tire wear particles (TWP), that were treated in accordance with an ISO 4892 standard weathering procedure that mimics natural weathered conditions. In the third study, we used weathered PE films to evaluate the synergistic adsorption behaviour of two pollutants, namely triclosan (TCS) and methylparaben (MeP). It was found that weathered MPs adsorb more pollutants and the adsorption behaviour of TCS is enhanced in the presence of MeP. In the fourth study, the magnetic extraction of pristine and weathered PE and TWP particles was performed. The results confirmed that the magnetic VI extraction of weathered MPs is difficult as compared to pristine MPs as their surface becomes more hydrophilic with weathering. In the fifth study, the effect of weathering on the density of PE and PP was evaluated. We found that weathering enhances the density of polyolefins, which is one of the main reasons for the observed sinking of polyolefin MPs in water.
Keywords: accelerated weathering, aging, density, magnetic separation, pigment, plastic degradation, pollutants, polyethylene, polyolefin, polypropylene, sinking, tire wear particles, dissertations
Published in RUNG: 04.06.2024; Views: 12; Downloads: 0
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Abstract: The origin of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs), particles from outer space with energies �≥1 EeV, is still unknown, though the near-isotropy of their arrival direction distribution excludes a dominant Galactic contribution, and interactions with background photons prevent them from travelling cosmologically large distances. This suggests that their sources must be searched for in nearby galaxy groups and clusters. Deflections by intergalactic and Galactic magnetic fields are expected to hinder such searches but not preclude them altogether. So far, the only anisotropy detected with statistical significance ≥ 5� is a modulation in right ascension in the data from the Pierre Auger Observatory at �≥8 EeV interpretable as a 7% dipole moment. Various hints for higher-energy, smaller-scale anisotropies have been reported. UHECR arrival direction data from both the Pierre Auger Observatory and the Telescope Array experiment have been searched for anisotropies by a working group with members from both collaborations; combining the two datasets requires a cross-calibration procedure due to the different systematic uncertainties on energy measurements but allows us to perform analyses that are less model-dependent than what can be done with partial sky coverage. We report a significant dipole pointing away from the Galactic Center and a ∼4.6� anisotropy found when comparing the directions of UHECRs with a catalog of starburst galaxies.
Keywords: Pierre Auger Observatory, ultra-high energy cosmic rays, anisotropy, galactic magnetic fields, telescope array, arrival directions
Published in RUNG: 23.01.2024; Views: 566; Downloads: 4
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Abstract: The autocorrelation analysis using the arrival direction of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs) has been previously reported by the Telescope Array (TA) experiment. It is expected that the autocorrelation function reflects the source distribution. We simulate the expected arrival direction distribution of the cosmic rays using the catalogs of candidate sources. We take into account random deflection in the magnetic fields, with the magnitude of deflection determined by the charge and energy of the cosmic rays, coherence length and magnitude of the extragalactic magnetic field (EGMF), and by distance to source. In addition, in order to compare with the results of TA experiment, we consider the TA exposure. We compare the autocorrelation of the arrival directions corresponding to different source catalogs with the isotropic distribution. We calculate the autocorrelation function for each type of source candidates using this procedure. We will discuss the ability of this method to identify the source type of UHECRs.
Keywords: Telescope Array, indirect detection, surface detection, ground array, ultra-high energy, cosmic rays, energy spectrum, composition, anisotropy, autocorrelation, source models, magnetic fields
Published in RUNG: 04.10.2023; Views: 968; Downloads: 7
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Abstract: Telescope Array (TA) and Auger experiments reported anisotropies in the arrival direction of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs). In particular, Auger Collaboration reported a correlation between UHECR events and the flux model of assumed sources and suggested a contribution of starburst galaxies (SBGs) to the anisotropy of UHECRs. However, in their study, the effect of coherent deflections by the galactic magnetic field (GMF) is not taken into account. In this study, we investigated the effect of the GMF on the arrival directions of UHECRs using the cosmic ray propagation code CRPropa3. We used a backtracking technique which consists of propagating antiparticles to map the flux outside the galaxy to at the earth. We estimate the systematic effects caused by GMF in the reported likelihood analysis. We conduct likelihood analysis for mock UHECR datasets based on the flux pattern through the GMF model. We found systematic decrease of (f_ani, �) due to GMF. As prospects for the TAx4 experiment and joint analysis of Auger and TA collaborations, we develop the likelihood analysis method with the convolution of the rigidity spectrum.
Keywords: Telescope Array, TAx4, ultra-high energy, cosmic rays, anisotropy, galactic magnetic field, starburst galaxies
Published in RUNG: 29.09.2023; Views: 781; Downloads: 5
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Keywords: Magnetic catalyst, Photocatalyst, Water treatment, Sunlight, Contaminants of emerging concern, Photo-Fenton-like systems, Cu, Mn, Fe, XANES, EXAFS
Published in RUNG: 06.07.2023; Views: 1406; Downloads: 5
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