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Effect of microplastics on simultaneous degradation of antibiotics and bacterial inactivation in groundwater and secondary wastewater treatment plant effluents with Fenton process using pyrite as the catalyst
Summary
**TLDR:** Scientists tested a natural mineral called pyrite that can clean antibiotics and harmful bacteria from drinking water and wastewater. However, when tiny plastic particles (microplastics) are present in the water, they interfere with this cleaning process and make it much less effective. This is concerning because microplastics are everywhere in our water systems and could be making it harder to remove dangerous germs and drug-resistant bacteria from our water supply.
Pyrite is a naturally occurring soil mineral that can be used as a reactive material in Fenton process for the treatment of groundwater and wastewater treatment plant effluent containing various micropollutants and microorganisms. However, microplastics enter into domestic wastewater and natural systems through some anthropogenic activities, and may interact with soil minerals in subsurface environment. In this study, batch experiments were conducted to determine the role of microplastics on simultaneous degradation of antibiotics and bacterial inactivation in groundwater and secondary wastewater treatment plant effluents with Fenton process using pyrite as the catalyst. Our results indicate that the removal of antibiotics and bacterial inactivation from water is driven by a combined effect of adsorption, followed by oxidative degradation/inactivation on pyrite surface. However, the presence of microplastics in water adversely affects the degradation of antibiotics and bacterial inactivation with pyrite-based Fenton process since they interact with pyrite surface through hydrophobic bonding, thereby reducing the catalytic activity of pyrite for an effective Fenton operation. Note: This study was partly funded by a research grant from Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University under a grant number of FDK-2025-5103.
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