Mark Vreys

Mr. Mark Vreys


Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

1Year (2026-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

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3 October 2026 in Applied Sciences
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
Christian PiechottaChristian Piechotta
Christian Piechotta
DHDAvid del Agua Hernández
DAvid del Agua Hernández
MVMark Vreys
Mark Vreys
SGSven Gestermann
Sven Gestermann
KKKatrin Kalbfleisch
Katrin Kalbfleisch
Bisphenol A (BPA) release from polycarbonate (PC) samples representative for major outdoor applications under environmentally relevant conditions has been characterized by a recently developed artificial accelerated weathering method. It simulates typical environmental stressors through controlled exposure to UVA radiation, rain, temperature, and humidity variations in a weathering chamber. The weathering chamber was modified to a closed-loop water cycle, enabling detection of potential accumulated BPA releases from the investigated samples at ultra-trace levels and excluding contamination. Four PC materials, representative of major outdoor applications, were investigated: (i) Reference PC with low UV absorber content, (ii) coextruded PC sheet with a high UV-absorber content surface layer, (iii) UV-cured coating protected PC for automotive headlamps, (iv) thermally cured polysiloxane hard-coated PC sheet. The artificial weathering tests resulted in consistently low accumulated BPA releases of at most 0.34 mg m−2 for samples with exposed PC surfaces. Samples with outer surfaces protected by commercial coatings revealed approximately two orders of magnitude lower releases, with cumulative BPA releases of 0.005 mg m−2 for the UV-cured coating-protected PC and 0.003 mg m−2 for the polysiloxane hard-coated PC. Across all cases examined, the release of BPA ceased after at most four to six weeks, corresponding to roughly 1–1.5 years of outdoor exposure in Central Europe if correlated based on applied UV radiation dose. Extended weathering for up to 11 weeks confirmed that no further BPA releases occurred after cessation. These results suggest that BPA releases from outdoor PC applications occur only during an initial weathering period and subsequently diminish to virtually zero. The observed release pattern can be plausibly explained by hydrolysis at the PC surface initially triggering minimal BPA releases, while progressive photo-degradation transforms the chemical composition in the topmost surface layer, which is hypothesized to cause the observed cessation of BPA releases.