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Green polyphenol-functionalized wood sawdust enables efficient capture of polystyrene nanoplastics: adsorption behavior and multiscale mechanistic insights
Summary
Scientists created a natural, eco-friendly filter by coating sawdust with a compound found in green tea, and found it can effectively pull tiny plastic particles (nanoplastics) out of water. This matters because nanoplastics are increasingly showing up in our water supplies and are too small for many standard filters to catch, raising concerns about their potential to accumulate in our bodies, this study points to a cheap, reusable, plant-based way to help clean them up before they reach us.
The widespread occurrence and persistence of nanoplastics (NPs) in aquatic environments have raised significant concerns regarding their ecological impacts and potential threats to human health. Adsorption has emerged as an effective and operationally straightforward remediation strategy, with the development of environmentally friendly and efficient adsorbents being critical to its success. In this study, a novel epigallocatechin gallate–modified wood sawdust composite (EGCG@WS) was prepared by surface functionalization of wood sawdust (WS) using a natural tea polyphenol extract, epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). The composite was applied to remove polystyrene nanoplastics (PNPs) from water. Characterization results confirmed that EGCG was effectively anchored onto the surface and within the pores of WS, leading to a significant enhancement in its adsorption capacity. EGCG@WS exhibited excellent adsorption performance under acidic to neutral pH conditions, achieving a maximum adsorption capacity of 123.61 mg/g. Furthermore, the composite demonstrated excellent recyclability, maintaining over 90% regeneration efficiency after ethanol desorption, underscoring its stability and reusability. To elucidate the adsorption mechanism, kinetic, isothermal, and thermodynamic analyses were performed, supplemented by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The combined results revealed that the adsorption of PNPs by EGCG@WS was governed by multiple synergistic effects, including van der Waals forces, π–π stacking, hydrophobic interactions, and physical entrapment. This study provides a promising green strategy for the efficient removal of NPs from aquatic environments and offers theoretical as well as technical references for NPs pollution control.