1. Photo degradation of plastics
By Paul Dornath
Chemistry 226 H
Spring 2007

2. What are plastics made out of?
Plastics are large molecules called polymers composed of repeated segments called monomers with carbon backbones.
Sometimes plastics are made with other chemicals that may form organic molecules when plastics degrade.

3. Solar Radiation
43 % of all the solar radiation is in the inferred spectrum, greater than 700 nm (This does little to plastics other than heating them).
52 % is visible light 700 – 400 nm
The last 5% is ultraviolet 400 to 290 nm
Global UV plot (dark green is the highest)

4. What exactly counts as UV anyway?
The lower boundary in Earth’s atmosphere solar UV spectrum is caused by ozone shielding
UV radiation can be classified as near, far or extreme UV but it is also possible to classify UV radiation in terms of UVA, UVB and UVC

5. UVA, UVB, UVC
Plastics tend to break down when exposed to UVA or higher radiation. (340 nm for the CH3-CH3 bond)
UV is ionizing radiation
The bonds between the atoms in many plastics have dissociation energies that are very similar to the quantum energy present in UV radiation.

6. Plastic degradation
UV energy absorbed by plastics can excite photons, which then create free radicals.
While many pure plastics cannot absorb UV radiation, the presence of catalyst residues and other impurities will often act as free radical receptors, and degradation occurs.

7. PET Plastic bottle experiment
When I went to India I noticed that they sell all their soda and water bottles outside in the sun!
Other studies have shown that onions mutate when grown in water from PET bottles left in the sun for many weeks.

8. My Questions
What happens to PET bottles when they’re left in the sun for ten days?
What chemicals are leaching into the water from the plastic?

9. PET plastic
Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) plastic is a polymer made from ethylene glycol and terephthalic acid.
PET is the also known as #1 plastic

10. Project goals
One: Simulate the previous testing conditions but expose bottles for only ten days.
Expose bottles to UV radiation and 18º-30º Celsius temperatures for 12 hours a day for ten days
Continuously expose bottles to 40º C in the dark
Leave control bottles in the dark at room temperature (18º plus or minus 2º)
Two: Use mass spectrometry to find the concentration of terephthalic acid in each sample

11. Goal #1: Building an ultraviolet incubator
Used 500W Halogen light to simulate the sun
Installed an air conditioning system to maintain temperature.

12. GC-MS testing
A Gas chromatogram- mass spectrometer can be used to find the relative abundance of chemicals in a solution.
Molecules produce specific peaks at a certain time.

13. Molecules in the tested water
PET
Ethyl Benzene
Benzoic acid
4-methyl Benzoic acid
91 Dalton Peak
105 Dalton Peak
91 and 119 Dalton Peak

14. Mass Spec charts
Control bottle
35 day UV test

15. Mass Spec charts
Ten day UV test
Ten day dark test

16. Comparing test results

17. Conclusion
PET bottles can degrade in the sun and in the heat. This could be a health issue and more tests should be run under these conditions to analyze the safety of using PET as a food storage material.

18. Possible future tests
Test with Fruit flies by adding the test water to the media
Grow onions with water from five week UV test
Perform a growth curve using yeast in treated water.
Create a standard curve for how much leaching occurs over time

19. Questions?