Papers

20 results
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Article Tier 2

The effects of uv-radiation on the removal of microplastics in water using agglomeration-micro-flotation

Researchers investigated how UV radiation affects the surface wettability of six types of microplastics and its influence on removal efficiency via agglomeration-micro-flotation in water. UV treatment altered surface properties of the microplastics, and results showed that the modified wettability affected flotation performance, offering insights into using UV pre-treatment to enhance microplastic removal in water treatment systems.

2024
Article Tier 2

The effects of ultraviolet irradiation treatment on the surface properties of microplastics

UV irradiation was used to modify microplastic surface properties, making them more hydrophilic, which improved flotation efficiency — a water treatment technique that relies on particle hydrophobicity — demonstrating a pretreatment approach to enhance MP removal from water.

2025 IOP Conference Series Earth and Environmental Science
Article Tier 2

Coagulation studies on photodegraded and photocatalytically degraded polystyrene microplastics using polyaluminium chloride

Researchers studied how UV light exposure and photocatalytic degradation change the properties of polystyrene microplastics and affect their removal by a common water treatment chemical. They found that UV-treated microplastics developed rougher surfaces and new chemical groups that made them easier to remove through coagulation. The study suggests that understanding how weathered microplastics behave differently from fresh ones is important for optimizing water treatment processes.

2023 Waste Management 18 citations
Article Tier 2

Removal of Microplastic From Liquid Medium By Dissolved Air Flotation

Researchers tested dissolved air flotation (DAF) as a technique for removing PVC microplastics from water, conducting flotation tests with coagulant dosage optimization using a suspension of 400 mg/L PVC particles in water supply.

2024 Revista de Gestão Social e Ambiental
Article Tier 2

Ultraviolet-C and vacuum ultraviolet inducing surface degradation of microplastics

Researchers studied how UV-C and vacuum ultraviolet irradiation affect the surfaces of four common microplastic types during water disinfection. They found that standard UV doses used in wastewater treatment had little effect, but higher doses caused significant surface cracking, chemical bond breakdown, and changes in hydrophobicity. The study suggests that UV disinfection in wastewater plants can alter microplastic surface properties, which may affect how these particles interact with pollutants and organisms downstream.

2020 Water Research 265 citations
Article Tier 2

The removal efficiency and mechanism of microplastic enhancement by positive modification dissolved air flotation

Researchers enhanced dissolved air flotation by modifying the process with positively charged surfaces to improve microplastic removal from freshwater, finding that the modified approach significantly outperformed conventional dissolved air flotation across three common polymer types.

2020 Water Environment Research 90 citations
Article Tier 2

Non-Negligible Effects of UV Irradiation on Transformation and Environmental Risks of Microplastics in the Water Environment

This review examines how UV irradiation drives photoaging of microplastics in aquatic environments, altering their surface chemistry, mechanical properties, and adsorption capacity for co-pollutants, and thereby amplifying their ecotoxicological risks beyond those of virgin plastic particles.

2021 Journal of Xenobiotics 43 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic removal in conventional drinking water treatment processes: Performance, mechanism, and potential risk

Researchers tested how well conventional drinking water treatment processes remove microplastic particles ranging from 10 to 90 micrometers in diameter. They found that larger particles were effectively removed by coagulation and sand filtration, but about 16% of the smallest particles passed through. The study also discovered that UV-based disinfection can fragment remaining microplastics into even smaller pieces and increase water toxicity, suggesting current treatment methods may need improvement.

2021 Water Research 183 citations
Article Tier 2

Investigation of Surface Alteration of Microplastics by Using UV Irradiation

UV radiation causes polystyrene and other plastic microparticles to undergo photooxidative degradation, changing their surface chemistry and potentially making them more likely to adsorb or release chemical pollutants. Understanding these weathering processes is important for predicting the environmental behavior and toxicity of microplastics.

2020 4 citations
Article Tier 2

Fate and potential risks of microplastic fibers and fragments in water and wastewater treatment processes

Researchers tested how different water treatment steps handle microplastic fibers and fragments, finding that sand filtration was most effective at 98% removal, while activated sludge and chemical treatment removed only 55-61%. Importantly, UV-based disinfection caused microplastic fragments to release dissolved chemicals that were toxic to cells and bacteria. This study reveals that some water treatment processes, while removing visible microplastics, may inadvertently create new chemical hazards from the plastic particles they break down.

2023 Journal of Hazardous Materials 33 citations
Article Tier 2

UVA-induced weathering of microplastics in seawater: surface property transformations and kinetics

Researchers studied how UVA radiation weathers microplastics in seawater, examining changes to surface properties and degradation rates. The study developed a model integrating an aging index with degradation kinetics, finding that UV exposure significantly transforms microplastic surface characteristics, which affects their behavior and potential ecological impact in marine environments.

2025 Frontiers in Marine Science 7 citations
Article Tier 2

Progress on the photo aging mechanism of microplastics and related impact factors in water environment

This review examined the photo-aging mechanisms of microplastics in aquatic environments, finding that solar UV radiation drives oxidation reactions that alter surface chemistry, fragment particles further, and enhance their capacity to adsorb and release co-occurring pollutants.

2021 Chinese Science Bulletin (Chinese Version) 9 citations
Article Tier 2

Understanding and Improving Microplastic Removal during Water Treatment: Impact of Coagulation and Flocculation

Researchers systematically tested coagulation and flocculation for removing microplastics from drinking water, finding that removal efficiency depended strongly on plastic particle size and whether particles had been weathered, with smaller pristine particles being the hardest to remove.

2020 Environmental Science & Technology 424 citations
Article Tier 2

Unveiling the optical and molecular characteristics of aging microplastics derived dissolved organic matter transformed by UV/chlor(am)ine oxidation and its potential for disinfection byproducts formation

Researchers studied how UV light and common water disinfection chemicals break down microplastics in water and found that different treatment methods produce different types of dissolved organic matter from the plastic. Some treatment combinations, particularly UV with chlorine, created byproducts that could form harmful disinfection byproducts when water is later chlorinated. This is important because it means water treatment processes might unintentionally create new toxic compounds from the microplastics already present in water.

2024 Journal of Hazardous Materials 61 citations
Article Tier 2

Removal of Micro/Nano-Plastics from Water by Flotation Technology: A Review

This review covers flotation technology as a method for removing micro- and nanoplastics from water, explaining how dissolved air flotation, electroflotation, and froth flotation work to separate plastic particles. The authors assess performance data across particle sizes and polymer types and identify remaining challenges for scaling these approaches.

2025 JORDANIAN JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING AND CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES (JJECI)
Article Tier 2

Simultaneous monitoring of flow patterns, and bubble, and plastics micro-particle characteristics in Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF)

Researchers used a lab-scale dissolved air flotation (DAF) tank to simultaneously track microbubbles and microplastic particles, finding that particle dynamics and flow regimes within the tank significantly influenced removal performance. The study offers insights for optimizing DAF water treatment systems to better capture microplastics during drinking water or wastewater processing.

2023 Process Safety and Environmental Protection 12 citations
Article Tier 2

Modifications of ultraviolet irradiation and chlorination on microplastics: Effect of sterilization pattern

Researchers found that both UV irradiation and chlorination used in drinking water treatment alter the surface properties, size distribution, and chemical composition of microplastics, with combined treatments producing greater modifications and potentially increasing the release of plastic additives and adsorbed contaminants.

2021 The Science of The Total Environment 38 citations
Article Tier 2

Effects of UV-based oxidation processes on the degradation of microplastic: Fragmentation, organic matter release, toxicity and disinfection byproduct formation

This study examined how UV-based water treatment processes break down microplastics, finding that while the treatments fragment the plastics into smaller pieces, they also release potentially toxic organic compounds. The smaller fragments and released chemicals may actually pose greater risks than the original microplastics. This is an important finding because it suggests that some water purification methods could unintentionally make microplastic pollution more hazardous to human health.

2023 Water Research 92 citations
Article Tier 2

Comparison of surficial modification of micro-sized polyethylenein between by UV/O3 and UVO submerged system

Researchers compared ozone and UV oxidation methods for chemically modifying the surface of polyethylene microplastics in water, finding that different treatment combinations create distinct surface changes. Understanding how weathering alters microplastic surfaces is important for predicting their environmental behavior and toxicity.

2021 Environmental Engineering Research 15 citations
Article Tier 2

Volatile organic compounds generation pathways and mechanisms from microplastics in water: Ultraviolet, chlorine and ultraviolet/chlorine disinfection

Researchers examined how UV, chlorine, and combined UV/chlorine disinfection treatments cause microplastics to release volatile organic compounds, identifying distinct degradation pathways for polypropylene, polystyrene, and PVC that generate diverse chemical byproducts in treated water.

2022 Journal of Hazardous Materials 36 citations