Dynamic process of UV-aging polystyrene microplastics, simultaneous adsorption of drugs, and subsequently coagulative removal together

Funding Sponsor

National Natural Science Foundation of China

Author's Department

Chemistry Department

Fifth Author's Department

Chemistry Department

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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2025.138100

All Authors

Pan Hu Wenxiao Ren Zhonghua Xi Jun Cai Tamer Shoeib Mahmoud A.A. Ibrahim Hu Yang

Document Type

Research Article

Publication Title

Journal of Hazardous Materials

Publication Date

7-15-2025

doi

10.1016/j.jhazmat.2025.138100

Abstract

The aging of plastics and their adsorptive interactions with the residual contaminants in water has attracted increasing attentions. In this study, the dynamic process of UV-aging polystyrene (PS) microplastics (MPs) were semi-quantitatively analyzed using a coulter counter, and the adsorptive interactions between the aged PS MPs and two popular drugs[norfloxacin (NOR) and chloroquine phosphate (CQ)] were investigated simultaneously. The MPs presented a rapid size downtrend, reduced from micrometer to nanometer, and the particle number concentration increased about 2 −3 times after a 36.0 h aging effect. The apparent UV-aging process of PS MPs mainly obeyed the pseudo-first order kinetic model in currently measured MPs’ size range. The drug uptakes of the aged MPs were fully consistent with the contents of oxygen-containing groups on MPs surface rather than MPs’ size. The involved adsorption mechanisms were investigated in detail mainly including electrostatic attraction, hydrogen bonding, and π-π electron donor-acceptor interaction. The drug adsorbed MPs were subsequently efficiently removed by an enhanced coagulation together owing to the synergistic effects of the two pollutants. This study provides a novel and comprehensive perspective on the fundamental understanding the UV-aging process of MPs and the simultaneous adsorption behaviors, furthermore, a strategy was proposed for their collaborative removal.

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