Versatile Thin Polymer Fibers Produced by a Cotton-Candy Melt-Spinning Method: Examples of Dye Doping and Microplastic Generation

Abstract We report a method for producing thin plastic fibers (TPFs) in a few minutes using an inexpensive cotton-candy machine. Commercially available plastics (PP, PMMA, PETG, and PLA) were used to evaluate the versatility of this simple technique. Thin fibers are generated starting from pieces of thicker (1.7 mm diameter) three-dimensional (3D) printing fibers or with commercial plastic products to generate a cotton-like mesh of TPFs that retains the properties of the original material. The TPFs can be loaded with a variety of dyes, including Rose Bengal and Rhodamine 6G, during their manufacture. These fibers can uptake organic molecules and serve as a tool to study the interaction of plastic fibers with pollutants in nature. We show that these fibers can be employed to fabricate microplastics. This top-down manufacture yields easy-to-track microplastics that mimic the diverse shapes and sizes found in nature to enable realistic impact studies.