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The Potential for PE Microplastics to Affect the Removal of Carbamazepine Medical Pollutants from Aqueous Environments by Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes
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This study found that polyethylene microplastics interfered with the ability of carbon nanotubes to remove the pharmaceutical drug carbamazepine from water. The interaction between microplastics and other contaminants can complicate water treatment and affect the behavior of pharmaceutical pollutants in aquatic environments.
Microplastics are ubiquitous in aquatic environments and interact with other kinds of pollutants, which affects the migration, transformation, and fate of those other pollutants. In this study, we employ carbamazepine (CBZ) as the contaminant to study the influence of polyethylene (PE) microplastics on the adsorption of CBZ pollutants by multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MCNTs) in aqueous solution. The adsorption capacity of CBZ by MCNTs in the presence of PE microplastics was obviously lower than that by MCNTs alone. The influencing factors, including the dose of microplastics, pH, and CBZ solution concentration, on the adsorption of CBZ by MCNTs and MCNTs-PE were thoroughly investigated. The adsorption rate of CBZ by MCNTs decreased from 97.4% to 90.6% as the PE microplastics dose increased from 2 g/L to 20 g/L. This decrease occurred because the MCNTs were coated on the surface of the PE microplastics, which further decreased the effective adsorption area of the MCNTs. This research provides a framework for revealing the effect of microplastics on the adsorption of pollutants by carbon materials in aqueous environments.
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Researchers studied how two common pharmaceutical contaminants — amlodipine and carbamazepine — adsorb onto colloidal microplastics, natural organic matter, and fullerene nanoparticles. The drug amlodipine accumulated at much higher levels than carbamazepine, and the type of surface coating on the plastic significantly influenced how much drug was absorbed, with implications for how microplastics carry pharmaceuticals through water systems.
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Researchers reviewed how micro- and nanoplastics interact with co-occurring nanomaterials and pharmaceuticals in aquatic environments, finding that plastics act as vectors that can either amplify or attenuate the bioavailability and toxicity of these contaminants depending on species, trophic level, and environmental conditions.
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