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Highly efficient removal of microplastics and dyes from textile effluents using electro modified polyester waste membranes
Summary
Scientists turned old plastic water bottles into a filter that removes both dyes and tiny plastic particles (microplastics) from textile factory wastewater — the kind that often ends up polluting rivers and eventually our water supply. The filter worked well even after being reused five times, showing it doesn't clog up easily, which means this could be a practical, low-cost way to keep harmful dyes and microplastics out of the water we depend on. It's also a clever twist: taking plastic waste that would otherwise pollute the environment and using it to fight a different kind of pollution.
The release of dye effluent wastewater carrying persistent organic dyes and microplastics is one of the greatest threats to the aquatic environment and human health; hence, there is an urgent need to develop sustainable methods for treating textile effluents. In this study, an innovative double function electro modified polyester waste membrane (EMPWM) was designed for the sustainable treatment of textile effluents by removing both dyes and microplastics through an integrated one-step electro oxidation method. It was found from the results of SEM, FTIR, and Zeta potential that the electro modified process was successful in creating functional groups containing oxygen on the membrane, making the membrane surface more hydrophilic (−31.4 mV at pH 7). In addition to this, the membrane showed a high degree of flux stability with more than 90% efficiency being retained after five repeated filtration runs, which is indicative of its strong anti-fouling capability. It can thus be concluded from the above discussion that the conversion of discarded polyester material into an efficient membrane can prove to be a win-win strategy by dealing with plastic waste as well as industrial effluents.