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<p>Plastic cutting boards are ubiquitous in household food preparation, yet whether routine chopping generates nanoscale plastic particles primarily by polymer fragmentation or by oligomer self-assembly remains unresolved. Here, using an integrated workflow that combines controlled chopping experiments, multimodal particle characterization, ethanol partitioning, pyrolysis–GC–MS/HPLC-CAD, molecular dynamics simulations, zebrafish assays, and scenario-based exposure modeling, we show that household plastic cutting boards are a substantial source of both microplastics and oligomer-derived nanoplastics. Across seven commercial boards, a 10-min chopping session (600 strikes) released 2750–7242 microplastics (62–164 μm) and 2.33 × 10⁷–1.12 × 10⁸ nanoparticles (104–200 nm). One month of photoaging increased nanoparticle release by up to 963% and shifted particle sizes below 50 nm in the tested representative PP board. Chemical analyses indicated that 38.2–55.0% of nanoparticles from new boards were oligomer-derived, rising to 92.7% after aging in the representative board. Molecular simulations showed that polypropylene oligomers self-assemble into spherical aggregates, whereas polyethylene oligomers preferentially form layered structures. Integrating experimentally measured release functions with regional cooking statistics for 144 regions from 2019 to 2022, we identified a behavior-driven exposure maximum in 2021. These findings identify oligomer self-assembly as a previously overlooked mechanism of nanoplastic generation during controlled cutting-board abrasion.</p>

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Oligomer self-assembly is a major source of nanoplastic release from household plastic cutting boards

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

    开放获取

  • 发表日期：

    2026年7月27日

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  • Mengjing Wang,
  • Linran Jia,
  • Youdong Xu,
  • Xiangyu Meng,
  • Yurou Jiang,
  • Jessica Chen,
  • Hao Li,
  • Bo Xu

摘要

Plastic cutting boards are ubiquitous in household food preparation, yet whether routine chopping generates nanoscale plastic particles primarily by polymer fragmentation or by oligomer self-assembly remains unresolved. Here, using an integrated workflow that combines controlled chopping experiments, multimodal particle characterization, ethanol partitioning, pyrolysis–GC–MS/HPLC-CAD, molecular dynamics simulations, zebrafish assays, and scenario-based exposure modeling, we show that household plastic cutting boards are a substantial source of both microplastics and oligomer-derived nanoplastics. Across seven commercial boards, a 10-min chopping session (600 strikes) released 2750–7242 microplastics (62–164 μm) and 2.33 × 10⁷–1.12 × 10⁸ nanoparticles (104–200 nm). One month of photoaging increased nanoparticle release by up to 963% and shifted particle sizes below 50 nm in the tested representative PP board. Chemical analyses indicated that 38.2–55.0% of nanoparticles from new boards were oligomer-derived, rising to 92.7% after aging in the representative board. Molecular simulations showed that polypropylene oligomers self-assemble into spherical aggregates, whereas polyethylene oligomers preferentially form layered structures. Integrating experimentally measured release functions with regional cooking statistics for 144 regions from 2019 to 2022, we identified a behavior-driven exposure maximum in 2021. These findings identify oligomer self-assembly as a previously overlooked mechanism of nanoplastic generation during controlled cutting-board abrasion.