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Impact of dissolved organic matter characteristics and inorganic species on the stability and removal by coagulation of nanoplastics in aqueous media
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Researchers investigated how dissolved organic matter type and ionic composition affect the stability and coagulation removal of nanoplastics, finding that biopolymers rich in proteins and carbohydrates most effectively stabilize particles through steric repulsion, while polymer aluminum chloride (PACl) outperforms alum as a coagulant in the presence of organic matter.
The aggregation of rough, raspberry-type polystyrene nanoparticles (PS-NPs) was investigated in the presence of six hydrophobic and hydrophilic dissolved organic matter (DOM) isolates and biopolymers (effluent OM) in NaCl and CaCl solutions using time-resolved dynamic light scattering. Results showed that the stability of PS-NPs mainly depends on OM characteristics and ionic composition. Due to cation bridging, the aggregation rate of PS-NPs in Ca-containing solutions was significantly higher than at similar Na-ionic strength. Biopolymers rich in protein and carbohydrate moieties showed higher affinity to the surface of PS-NPs than the other DOM isolates in the absence of both Ca and Na. Overall, the stability of PS-NPs followed the order of biopolymers > hydrophobic isolates > hydrophilic isolates in the presence of Na and biopolymers > hydrophilic isolates > hydrophobic isolates in Ca-containing solutions. In the presence of high MW structures (biopolymers), PS-NPs aggregation in both NaCl and CaCl solutions was attributed to steric repulsive forces. The impact of hydrophilic and hydrophobic isolates on PS-NPs aggregation highly relied on the ionic composition. Coagulation was an effective pretreatment for PS-NPs removal. Using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry, higher removals were recorded with Al(SO) in the absence of DOM, while PACl more efficiently coagulated PS-NPs in the presence of DOM isolates.
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