Plastics contributed from personal care products and plastic fragments are considered as one of the most common pollutants in the ocean since 1970s. In this study, poly (glycerol maleate) (PGM) is applied as the alternative of microbeads due to its high degradability in the water and the relatively low cost compared to other biodegradable polymers. The proposed PGM microbeads are fabricated via solvent evaporation methods with average diameter around 30 ± 13 μm and polydispersity index around 0.2 to 0.3. To identify the degradability of PGM microbeads in different water solutions, samples were examined in buffer solution with different pH values, DI water, sea water and enzyme solution through total organic carbon (TOC) analyzer/UV–Vis spectrometry, microscopy, and SEM. These microbeads were completely degraded in 45 min in alkaline solution (pH 10). In contrast, 60% of PGM microbeads were degraded in 30 days in the acidic solution (pH 4). It revealed that the base catalysis of hydrolysis was quicker than acid-catalysis. 50% more of PGM microbeads were degraded in the refreshed DI water in a month. However, only 36% of microbeads were degraded in synthetic sea water. The high salinity was suspected to obstruct the hydrolysis of PGM microbeads and slow down the degradation rate. Lipase solution is conducted to examine the possibility of bio-accumulation once PGM microbeads ingested inside the living organism, and the result shows that PGM microbeads degrade mostly in seven days. It is worthy to note that PLA microbeads only degrade at pH 10 in this study. With the comparison between PGM and PLA microbeads, PGM is more easily degraded and affordable, and it is thought to have great potential for being the alternative to plastic microbeads.

自1970年代以来，由个人护理产品提供的塑料和塑料碎片被认为是海洋中最常见的污染物之一。在这项研究中，聚马来酸甘油酯（PGM）由于在水中的高降解性和与其他可生物降解的聚合物相比相对较低的成本而被用作微珠的替代品。所提出的PGM微珠通过溶剂蒸发法制备，平均直径约为30±13μm，多分散指数约为0.2至0.3。为了确定PGM微珠在不同水溶液中的降解性，通过总有机碳（TOC）分析仪/ UV-Vis光谱仪，显微镜和SEM在具有不同pH值的缓冲溶液，去离子水，海水和酶溶液中检测了样品。这些微珠在碱性溶液（pH 10）中在45分钟内完全降解。相反，在酸性溶液（pH 4）中，有60％的PGM微珠在30天内降解。结果表明，水解的碱催化比酸催化要快。一个月内，在新鲜的去离子水中，有50％以上的PGM微珠被降解。但是，只有36％的微珠在合成海水中降解。高盐度被怀疑阻碍了PGM微珠的水解并减慢了降解速度。脂肪酶溶液用于检查一旦PGM微珠摄入生物体内后生物蓄积的可能性，结果表明PGM微珠大部分在7天内降解。值得注意的是，在这项研究中，PLA微珠仅在pH 10时降解。通过比较PGM和PLA微珠，