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Natural sunlight-driven photocatalytic degradation of polypropylene microplastics over ZnO nanorods
Summary
Scientists developed a zinc oxide photocatalyst that, when exposed to natural sunlight, broke down polypropylene microplastics five times faster than natural degradation alone. The technology uses sunlight to trigger chemical reactions that oxidize and degrade the plastic particles. This approach represents a promising and sustainable method for cleaning up microplastic pollution in water, which could help reduce the amount of microplastics that eventually reach humans through the water supply.
Microplastic pollution has emerged as a major global issue, with over 5 trillion plastic particles contaminating oceans and seas, posing significant risks to both ecosystems and human health. Recent studies have highlighted advanced oxidation processes as a promising technology to tackle this issue. Among these, heterogeneous photocatalysis has been identified as a particularly effective process. In this study, we fabricated ZnO-based photocatalysts, hydrothermally coated onto a glass fiber meshes with a thickness of approximately 16 μm. The ZnO nanorods exhibited an average length (l) of ∼3.2 μm and an average diameter (d) of ∼94 nm, resulting in a high length-to-diameter (l/d) ratio of 34 to enhance photocatalytic efficiency. The photocatalytic degradation of low-density polypropylene MPs (300 μm, 905 kg/m) was tested using a 100 mL batch photoreactor in which 27 particles (∼26 mg) were suspended under natural solar irradiation for a total of 196 h. The oxidation of microplastics was quantified by monitoring the carbonyl index (CI) over a period of 16 days. The results showed a remarkable increase in the CI reaching a value of 57, approximately five times higher than that observed in the natural degradation process without the presence of a photocatalyst, and higher than in almost all recent studies.