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Photocatalytic Removal of Polyester Polyurethane, and Polyethylene Microplastics via ZnO-Fe-Mg-C Nanocomposite to H2
Summary
Scientists created a zinc oxide-based nanocomposite catalyst that can break down polyester, polyurethane, and polyethylene microplastics under light, and simultaneously convert them into hydrogen gas. This dual function — destroying plastic pollution while generating a clean fuel — represents a potentially valuable approach to turning a major environmental problem into a usable energy resource.
In this work H2 generation was studied via polyester, polyurethane, and polyethylene microplastics using a novel nanocomposite namely zinc oxide-iron-magnesium-carbon (ZnO/Fe/Mg/C). The probability of H2- production from plastic wastes was researched. The characterization of this nanocomposite were performed by XRD, FTIR, Raman, SEM, EDS and TEM analysis. XRD analysis showed that lattice planes of ZnO/Fe/Mg/C nanocomposite were distributed as (100), (002), (101), (102), (110), (103), (200), (112) and (004) according to FTIR analysis, it was found that the ligth abundances at 610, 682 and 779 cm-1 were associated with the Zn and O moeities, while the maximum peak at 399 cm-1 can be defined with Zn, Fe and Mg oxides and they connected to Zn and OH radicals. Raman spectra exhibited the G-band at 1499 cm−1 as special properties of sp2 carbonated moeities. SEM results showed that a brittle and porous structure containing spherical nanosized particles was detected in the ZnO/Fe/Mg/C nanocomposite, where various voids were formed, while the zinc particle size containing carbon-Mg-Fe was increased by excess carbon and ZnO/Fe/Mg/C nanocomposite. Furtheremore the effects of some operational conditions (time, nanocomposite concentration, temperature) on the yields of H2 productions from both micropollutants were examined. The maximum H2 production was detected at 250 mg/l polyethylene microplastic as 9800 ml/h with ZnO/Fe/Mg/C nanocomposite a, containing 2% Fe while the H2 production was detected as 7800 ml/h from polyester polyurethane with the same nanocomposite. Optimum operating conditions; maximum H2 production efficiencies of 99% polyethylene and 88% polyester polyurethane were achieved at 3 mg/l ZnO/Fe/Mg/C nanocomposite a, concentration, at 3 minutes and at 5 minutes experimental times and at 125oC temperature, respectively.