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Magnetic Ferrotitaniferous Sands for Microplastic Removal
Summary
Scientists found a way to pull tiny plastic particles (microplastics) out of water using specially treated magnetic sand — and it worked incredibly fast, removing 95% of plastic bits in just 30 seconds. Since this sand can simply be pulled out with a magnet afterward, it could offer a cheap, reusable way to clean up drinking water sources, potentially reducing the amount of microplastic we ingest and its unclear long-term health risks.
Microplastics have emerged as a major environmental health concern due to their environmental persistence, fragmentation, and widespread distribution. Conventional adsorption strategies often have limited efficiency, reuse, and scalability, and may generate secondary pollutants. This work explores the use of ferrotitaniferous sand milled for 4, 8, 12, 16, 32, and 52 h and subsequently functionalized with polyethylene glycol (PEG) for the removal of Polyethylene Terephthalate(PET) microplastics. The samples were characterized using Fourier-Transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The average particle size of the samples decreases with the milling time from 60±35 μm to 3±1 μm. The magnetic properties enable rapid separation of sand–microplastic aggregates from water using magnets. Ferrotitaniferous sand exhibits soft ferrimagnetic behavior, with a maximum saturation of 50.09 emu/g. The remanence and coercivity increase as the average particle size decreases. Ultraviolet–visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy was used to quantify the hydrothermally fragmented PET microparticles in water. The maximum microplastic adsorption removal was 95% within 30 s for the 12 h milled sample coated with PEG. The results show that PEG increases the samples’ adsorption capacity from 20.48 to 32.36 mg/g. The novelty of this work lies in the use of magnetic Ferrotitaniferous sands as a promising, sustainable resource for magnetic separation technologies.