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Environmental microplastics and their additives—a critical review on advanced oxidative techniques for their removal
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Researchers reviewed how advanced oxidation processes — including photocatalysis and electro-Fenton methods — can break down common microplastics and their chemical additives like BPA in water, finding these techniques are more effective than traditional treatment methods but still require further study for large-scale use.
Microplastics (MPs) and their additives are a major concern to the environment and public health due to their toxicity. MPs originate from different categories of plastics, namely polyethylene (PE), polystyrene (PS), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and polyethylene terephthalate (PET). The removal of MPs and their additives including bisphenol A (BPA), nonylphenol (NP), and tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA) has been a major challenge. Recently, advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) have been demonstrated to be more effective for the removal of MPs and their additives than traditional methods. Meanwhile, there are still limited studies on the application AOPs for their remediation. Consequently, there is a need for more investigation on the remediation of MPs and their additives. This review investigates the degradation of common MPs (PE, PS, PVC, and PET) and their additives (NP, BPA, and TBBPA) using AOPs including photocatalysis (PC), (electrocatalysis) photoelectrocatalysis (PEC), electro-Fenton (EF), and sonocatalysis. In-depth analyses reveal reactive oxygen species (ROS) as a driving force for the efficiency of AOPs. The complete removal of environmental MPs and their additives is quite promising with the AOPs.
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