Plastic pollution in water is threatening the environment and human health. Previous relevant studies mainly focus on macro and micro plastic pollutions and their characteristics. Little is known about the extent and characteristics of nano-scale plastics in our drinking water systems, mainly due to difficulties in their isolation and analysis. These nano-plastics may pose higher risk to human health than micro-plastics. Here we report the collection and analysis of organic nanoparticles from commercial bottled water of two brands. Novel nano-plastic particle imaging and molecular structure analysis techniques have been applied. The findings show the existence of organic nanoparticles, and a likely source has been identified to be the degradation of plastic water bottles.

水中的塑料污染正在威胁环境和人类健康。以往的相关研究主要集中在宏观和微观塑料污染及其特征。我们对饮用水系统中纳米级塑料的范围和特性知之甚少，主要是由于它们的分离和分析困难。这些纳米塑料可能比微塑料对人类健康构成更高的风险。在这里，我们报告了两个品牌的商业瓶装水中有机纳米颗粒的收集和分析。新型纳米塑料颗粒成像和分子结构分析技术已被应用。研究结果表明存在有机纳米颗粒，并且已确定可能的来源是塑料水瓶的降解。