ArticleEnvironmental science & technology2025
Biofilms on Plastics Slow Photo-Oxidation while Promoting Surface Degradation.
Article in Environmental science & technology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Abiotic Hydrolysis of Microplastics: Influence of Polymer Chain Scission on Particle Fragmentation and Dissolved Organic Carbon Release.Environmental science & technology · 2026Article
- We See That Plastics Are Persistent. But Should We Treat Them Universally as a POP?Environmental science & technology · 2026Article
- Investigating Plastic-Metal Interactions in Aquatic Environments Using Laser Ablation ICP-MS and Chemical Markers.ACS ES&T water · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Plastics in natural environments undergo physicochemical aging, yet the role of biofilms─microbial communities that colonize plastic surfaces─remains poorly understood. To evaluate this, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) drinking bottles were exposed to natural freshwater to facilitate biofilm formation, and subsequently subjected to ultraviolet (UV) irradiation to assess the influence of biofilms on weathering. Results showed that biofilms exert dual roles, as both protectors and aggressors. When combined with UV exposure, biofilms intensified surface morphological alterations, root-mean-square roughness increased from ∼22 nm for pristine PET to ∼874 nm, and altered polymer crystallinity, as indicated by a shift in the Raman spectrum. They increased brittleness and reduced impact strength, facilitating UV to penetrate deeper layers and form cavities, thereby enhancing specific surface area from 2 g m
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Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.