Fig 1.
Determination of the neutron contrast match point for vermiculite (0.5 wt % dispersed in H2O/D2O mixtures).
(A) I(Q) vs Q data, (B) square root of I(Q) at Q = 0.004 Å-1 vs D2O volume % in water. Error bars for Fig A are provided in S2 Fig.
Fig 2.
Effect of ex situ stirring and the presence vs. absence of vermiculite (V) on SANS data for NPs at the contrast match point for vermiculite (67% D2O in water; cf. Fig 1).
NPs and V were present in the suspension at 1.0 wt% and 0.5 wt%, respectively. (A) SANS and USANS data (inset: an expansion of the data at low Q) and (B) power law fitting (Eq 1) of data in Fig A [I(Q) = αQ-β, where β = 3.4–3.6]. For Fig B, I(Q) was multiplied by a constant (as given in the legend) to improve visualization. Error bars are smaller than the size of the symbols.
Fig 3.
Schulz polydisperse sphere form factor model fitting of (A) USANS and (B) SANS “excess” scattering data (I(Q) from Fig 2A minus power law fit from Fig 2B). Model parameters are given in Table 1. V and NP refers to vermiculite and nanoplastics, respectively. Experimental conditions are given in Fig 2.
Table 1.
Results from model fitting of SANS+USANS “excess” data plotted in Fig 3, a,b.