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Surface characteristics of polystyrene microplastics mainly determine their coagulation performances

Marine Pollution Bulletin 2022 50 citations

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Researchers evaluated polyaluminum sulfate coagulant for removing polystyrene microplastics from water, achieving 90.4% removal at optimal dosage. Surface characteristics of microplastics including density, particle size, and adsorbed substances significantly influenced coagulation efficiency.

Polymers

In this study, polyaluminum sulfate (PAS) coagulant was selected to evaluate the coagulation performance of polystyrene microplastics. Overall, polystyrene removal efficiency was 90.4 % at the optimal dosage of 7.5 g/L of PAS. In addition to the type of coagulants (e.g. polyaluminum chloride, iron(III) chloride, and polyferric sulfate), surface characteristics such as densities, particle sizes, morphologies, adsorbed substances, and functional groups can also significantly impact the coagulation performance. The coagulation ratios are reduced to (2.6 ± 0.1)% when the densities of microplastics decrease. Aging treatments involving NaOH, HSO, NaClO, CHOH, and O promoted coagulation, whereas UV and NaSO treatments inhibited (64.1 ± 9.7)% and (79.3 ± 8.0)% of polystyrene removals, respectively. In contrast, Fe(NO) treatment did not affect the removal ratio. Further characterization of polystyrene before and after coagulation exemplified that the functional groups (CO, CO, and CH) and the rough surfaces of PAS provided adsorption and interception sites for hydrolysis products of the PAS.

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