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Precise characterization of the presence and fate of plastic oligomers in water

Nature Water volume 3, pages 461–472 (2025) Cite this article

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Abstract

Microplastics are synthetic polymers that contribute to water pollution. However, little is known about the presence and fate of microplastic breakdown products, especially oligomers, due to their structural diversity and lack of standards. Here we present Oligomer-Finder, a non-targeted platform that uses repeated neutral losses, retention time prediction and custom-built databases to screen and annotate oligomers. By incubating four commonly used bioplastics in three natural water types, we identified several hundred released oligomers, which entered water quickly but declined over time. Oligomers with shorter chains or modified end structures showed greater stability. Using Oligomer-Finder combined with a suspect screening approach, we detected dozens of oligomers from five polymers and hundreds of potentially new oligomers in wastewater samples from 13 treatment plants. Aquatic toxicity assessments revealed embryotoxicity in zebrafish, highlighting potential ecological risks. Oligomer-Finder, with its user-friendly interface, provides precise identification of oligomers and supports life-cycle risk assessments for plastics.

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Fig. 1: Oligomer structure and seed molecule-guided Oligomer-Finder workflow.
The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.
Fig. 2: Characteristics of oligomers in LC–MS/MS analysis: an illustration using OLAs as an example.
The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.
Fig. 3: Structural annotation of oligomers with modified end group.
The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.
Fig. 4: Oligomer formation and degradation kinetics from microbioplastics in different types of natural water.
The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.
Fig. 5: Screening oligomers in the influent from WWTPs using Oligomer-Finder and suspect screening.
The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.
Fig. 6: Effects of oligomers and MP leachate on the early developmental toxicity of zebrafish.
The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.

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Data availability

All data are included in the manuscript and/or the Supplementary Information. These data are also available via Zenodo at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14942110 (ref. 50). Detailed experimental methods, numerical data on the number and peak area of oligomers, as well as additional chromatograms and MS/MS spectra, are provided in the Supplementary Information and Supplementary Data. Source data are provided with this paper.

Code availability

Oligomer-Finder was developed using R and Oligomer_Finder_UI was based on Qt Creator software. A simplified version of the Seed Oligomer-Finder module and the code for suspect screening of C–C backbone oligomers were developed using Python. All source codes and GUI versions of Oligomer-Finder can be found and downloaded for scientific research purposes at https://github.com/FangLabNTU/Oligomer-Finder. A help document, demonstration data and results are also available.

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Acknowledgements

M.F. was sponsored by the National Key R&D Program (grant no. 2024YFA0918900), the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (grant no. XDB0750300), National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 22376032), Agilent University Relations (ACT-UR Program, grant no. 4863) and the Xiaomi Young Investigator Award. M.S. was sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 22125606 and 22241604). We thank J. Xu from Fudan University and J. Jiang for their assistance in finalizing the code and developing the GUI version. We also acknowledge X. Chen, X. J. Chen, A. Zhao, S. Hu, X. Jiang, Q. Wang and Z. Shu from Fudan University and S. Han, S. Zou and S. Hu from Jianghan University for their professional discussion.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shanghai Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Particle Pollution and Prevention (LAP3), National Observations and Research Station for Wetland Ecosystems of the Yangtze Estuary, Department of Environmental Science & Engineering, Fudan University, Shanghai, China

    Changzhi Shi, Ao Guo, Jing Yang, Feng Zhao, Hongbo Fu, Zimeng Wang, Jianmin Chen & Mingliang Fang

  2. Hubei Key Laboratory of Environmental and Health Effects of Persistent Toxic Substances, School of Environment and Health, Jianghan University, Wuhan, China

    Shaochen Pang

  3. West Coast Metabolomics Center, University of California—Davis, Davis, CA, USA

    Min Liu

  4. Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), San Francisco, CA, USA

    Mengjing Wang

  5. SINOPEC Research Institute of Safety Engineering Co. Ltd, Qingdao, China

    Xiaohan Dou

  6. State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Environmental Risk Assessment and Control on Chemical Process, School of Resources and Environmental Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, China

    Qian Sui

  7. State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers, Department of Macromolecular Science, Fudan University, Shanghai, China

    Chaoran Xu & Xiangcheng Pan

  8. Key Laboratory of Environmental Nanotechnology and Health Effects, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Fengbang Wang & Maoyong Song

  9. Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China

    Xiqing Li

  10. Shanghai Institute of Eco-Chongming (SIEC), Shanghai, China

    Jianmin Chen & Mingliang Fang

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  1. Changzhi Shi
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Contributions

C.S. and M.F. conceived and designed the study. J.C., M.S. and M.F. supervised the study. C.S., X.D., Q.S., H.F. and X.L. collected the plastics, natural water and wastewater samples. A.G. and C.S. performed the characterization experiments and data analysis. C.S. and J.Y. collated the polymer and oligomer information for developing databases. C.S. and M.L. authored the R and GUI scripts. C.S., A.G and J.Y. conducted the MS experiments. S.P. and C.S. performed the zebrafish embryotoxicity experiments. C.X. and X.P. synthesized the chemical standards. M.W., Z.W., F.W. and M.S. provided advice on experimental design and helped modify all subsequent drafts. C.S., A.G., F.Z. and M.F. wrote the manuscript with input from all the authors. All the authors discussed the results.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Maoyong Song, Jianmin Chen or Mingliang Fang.

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Nature Water thanks Gang Liu and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information (download PDF )

Supplementary Notes 1–17, Figs. 1–30 and Tables 1–8.

Reporting Summary (download PDF )

Supplementary Data (download XLSX )

Supplementary Dataset 1: Polymerization patterns with repeat units. Supplementary Dataset 2: PODB for polymer oligomer screening. Supplementary Dataset 3: OEGDB for congener screening. Supplementary Dataset 4: A supplementary end-group database of potential oligomer end structures in the environment (OEGDB-env). Supplementary Dataset 5: Oligomers screened out in tap water by Oligomer-Finder. Supplementary Dataset 6: Oligomers screened out in wastewater by Oligomer-Finder and suspect screening.

Source data

Source Data Fig. 2 (download XLSX )

Data underlying Fig. 2b–f.

Source Data Fig. 3 (download XLSX )

Data underlying Fig. 3a,b,d,e.

Source Data Fig. 4 (download XLSX )

Data underlying Fig. 4c–f.

Source Data Fig. 5 (download XLSX )

Data underlying Fig. 5c.

Source Data Fig. 6 (download XLSX )

Data underlying Fig. 6b–g.

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Shi, C., Guo, A., Pang, S. et al. Precise characterization of the presence and fate of plastic oligomers in water. Nat Water 3, 461–472 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44221-025-00418-7

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