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Interfacial interactions between collected nylon microplastics and three divalent metal ions (Cu(II), Ni(II), Zn(II)) in aqueous solutions
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Researchers investigated how collected nylon microplastics adsorb copper, nickel, and zinc ions from water under various environmental conditions. They found that the adsorption was spontaneous and driven largely by oxygen-containing functional groups on the nylon surface, with the process controlled by intraparticle diffusion for copper and zinc. The study demonstrates that nylon microplastics can serve as carriers for heavy metals in aquatic environments, potentially increasing their environmental toxicity.
In water environments, nylon microplastics (MPs) and heavy metals are two kinds of common pollutants. This study investigated the adsorption of three divalent metals (Cu(II), Ni(II), Zn(II)) onto collected nylon MPs as function of contact time, temperature, solution pH, ionic strength and concentration of fulvic acid (FA). The kinetic data fitted well with the Elovich and pseudo-second order equations. The result of shrinking core model (SCM) confirms that the adsorption of Cu(II) and Zn(II) was mainly controlled by intraparticle diffusion. The adsorption of three metal ions onto collected nylon MPs is spontaneous, endothermic, with an increased randomness in nature. The Langmuir and Freundlich models successfully described the adsorption isotherms. The speciation distributions of three divalent metals in aqueous solutions were identified to analyze the effects of initial solution pH, ionic strength and fulvic acid concentrations on the adsorption amounts. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis indicates the importance of surface O-containing groups of collected nylon MPs in controlling the adsorption of three metal ions. This research provides a clear theoretical basis for the behavior of nylon MPs as heavy metals (Cu(II), Ni(II), Zn(II)) carrier and highlights their environmental toxicity, which deserves to be further concerned.
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