As plastic waste in our environment continues to increase, there becomes an increasing need to understand how these plastics degrade and breakdown in the environment and the material that this degradation leaves behind. To explore this topic, we study the hydrolysis of polyesters with an emphasis on characterizing the material that is released from the bulk into solution. Due to the inherent structure in semicrystalline polymers, degradation in the amorphous interlamellar regions can lead to micro- and nano-scale crystalline lamella being shed from the bulk materials. Exploration of this topic can help us to better understand the formation and structure of nanoplastics and can also lead to design strategies to reduce the natural formation of nanoplastics in semicrystalline polymers.
