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Particle size distribution of nanoplastic particles (Nano ZS Zetasizer). Lines indicate replicate results.
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Microplastics and nanoplastics are abundant in the environment, and the fate and impact of nanoplastics are of particular interest because of their small size. Wastewater treatment plants are a sink for nanoplastics, and large quantities of nanoplastics are discharged into surface waters through wastewater as well as stormwater effluents. There is...
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... were spherical in shape and allowed for well-controlled experiments. To investigate the effect of various physical separation methods on removal and the size distribution of the nanoplastics, zeta size measurements were used to obtain a profile of the particle size distribution prior to treatment, and the results are shown in Figure 2. Zetasizer results show two analytical replicates. ...
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... second experimental replicate was also taken, and results were used to calculate average particle size, but are not shown. The x-axis of Figure 2 shows the equivalent circle diameter, which is the diameter of the particles assuming the particles are spherical. Since the nanoplastics were roughly spherical, as shown in Figure 1, this was an accurate assumption. ...
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... difference between experimental replicates was also larger following treatment, which was expected due to slight differences in treatment experienced by samples during filtration. Comparing the distribution in Figure 4 to that in Figure 2, the spread of particle sizes was much smaller and there were fewer large particles. This also fits the hypothesis that filtration removed larger particles but caused the agglomeration of smaller particles by providing opportunities for particles to contact each other, reducing the spread in particle sizes. ...
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... because the x-axis scale is logarithmic, the skew was, in fact, to the right. In comparison to the size distribution of the untreated sample shown in Figure 2, there are relatively fewer large particles (greater than 300 nm), and more smaller particles (less than 100 nm). The decrease in larger particles was expected because centrifugation can be expected to preferentially remove larger, heavier particles. ...
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... could be an indication of floc formation or it could be due to the presence of the ballast sand. Comparing the distribution shown in Figure 9 to that in Figure 2, it is difficult to see a difference visually. This indicates that there was probably only one type of particle present (nanoplastics), if there was a significant number of sand particles, the distribution would be expected to be bimodal. ...
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... The D_Y1 was taken using a glass pipette and filtered using a 0.45 µm cellulose acetate (CA) filter. The colloid phase was collected and centrifuged at 1500 r/min for 10 min [37]. Subsequently, after centrifugation, the supernatant (D_YC1) was taken with a glass pipette and passed through another syringe attached to a 0.45 µm CA filter. ...
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... Micro-and nanoplastic particles enter the human body via inhalation and absorption [1], permeate biological membranes [7], and bioaccumulate in organs. Nanoplastic particles have been found in human lungs, livers, spleens, kidneys, and the placentas of newborn babies [1,[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28]. Consequently, micro-been considered one of the major approaches for removing microplastics [43]. ...
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... The hollow fibre membranes have a good total area-to-volume ratio, spiral-wound films are well-suited for supporting high flow rates, and flat sheets offer convenience in terms of cleaning and maintenance. The selection of the structure is affected by various aspects, including the characteristics of the water source, the composition of pollutants and the required flow rates [30]. The mechanisms included in the filtration of microplastics. ...
The growing number of microplastics in water bodies is now recognized as a significant global environmental issue, offering substantial risks to both aquatic ecosystems and human well-being. The present research investigates the progress and application of state-of-the-art nanofiltration techniques to respond to this critical issue. In this an in-depth examination of several different nanofiltration methods, investigating their efficacy, their fundamental mechanisms, and variety in the filtration of microplastics from various water sources. The study covers a variety of materials and membrane layouts, investigating the ways they contribute to improving filtering efficiency and selectivity. Also, the present study analyzes the practical considerations that accompany the implementation of these methodologies, including operational expenditures, scalability potential, and ecological consequences. The results of this investigation demonstrate that the utilization of advanced nanofiltration technologies offers significant promise for solving the issue of microplastic pollution. This shows their potential in protecting the quality of water as well as having a beneficial effect on global environmental sustainability.
... Micro-and nanoplastic particles enter the human body through inhalation and absorption [1] permeating thru biological membranes [7] and bioaccumulating in organs. Nanoplastic particles have been found in human's lungs, livers, spleens, kidneys, and in the placentas of newborn babies [1,25]. Consequently, micro-nanoplastic particles pollution is "…a potential threat to food security, health, and environment" [7] (p.164533(1)) [26]. 2 Moreover, plastic debris is hydrophobic, with large surface areas that adsorb pollutants on their surface at concentrations that are several orders of magnitude higher than in the surrounding water. ...
... The most applied technology in WWTPs for the removal of pollutants is adsorption for its simplicity, high efficiency, and wide range of applicability. Thus, advanced adsorbents are continuously under research and development for the efficient removal of micro-and nanoplastic particles from water environments [4] including activated carbon, carbon nanotubes, molecular sieves, metal-organic frameworks, membrane technology (e.g., microfiltration and ultrafiltration) [8], and nano technology, which display different levels of performance and manufacturing costs [4,24,25,28]. Though, it has been demonstrated that these advanced adsorbents display removal efficiencies of micro-and nanoplastics particles up to a maximum of 90% [4,8,24,25,28]. Additionally, these technologies are expensive and are affected by operational limitations, such as rapid fouling and membrane blockage [8,17,[29][30][31][32]. ...
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Microplastics (MPs) are pollutant agents that have been absorbed and detected in aquatic ecosystems at high concentrations. This study aimed to investigate the presence of MPs pollution in green mussel (Perna viridis) products sold at the Kedonganan fish market, Badung, Bali. A total of 150 mussels with an average weight of 3,2 ± 0,71 g/mussels from three traders each composed and followed by the pre-treatment stage using 5 M NaCl solution, extraction with wet oxidation peroxidation (WPO) + Fe(II) catalyst and filtered. The highest percentage for the form of MPs was successively obtained by the Line form in Trader A at 85,42% and the lowest in Trader C at 50,00%. The highest form of fragments was obtained in Trader C at 42,86%. Film and filament forms were only obtained in Trader A. The highest MPs color was black and the lowest was gray. The highest average MPs particle size was found in the form of a filament of 1944,37 ± 88,41 μm which was found in Trader A. Estimates of MPs intake per year/capita in Indonesia showed that exposure to MPs through consumption of green mussels in this study amounted to 498,330 MPs/year/capita items. Overall, the green mussel from Trader A had the highest percentage and size of MPs, with the shape of fragment MPs being dominated by Trader C and the color of the MPs being dominated by black. MPs exposure to green mussel consumption in Indonesia is very high, but no health impact category has yet been found for this estimate.
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Microplastic pollution has become a global environmental concern with detrimental effects on ecosystems and human health. Effective removal of microplastics from water sources is crucial to mitigate their impacts. Advanced oxidative processes (AOPs) have emerged as promising strategies for the degradation and elimination of microplastics. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the application of AOPs in the removal of microplastics from water. Various AOPs, such as photocatalysis, ozonation, and Fenton-like processes, have shown significant potential for microplastic degradation. These processes generate highly reactive species, such as hydroxyl radicals, which can break down microplastics into smaller fragments or even mineralize them into harmless byproducts. The efficiency of photocatalytic oxidation depends on several factors, including the choice of photocatalysts, reaction conditions, and the physicochemical properties of microplastics. Furthermore, this review discusses the challenges associated with photocatalytic oxidation, such as the need for optimization of operating parameters and the potential formation of harmful byproducts. Overall, photocatalytic oxidation offers a promising avenue for the removal of microplastics from water, contributing to the preservation of aquatic ecosystems and safeguarding human health. However, further research is needed to address the limitations and optimize the implementation of this process for effective and sustainable microplastic remediation.
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Mismanagement of plastic waste results in its ubiquitous presence in the environment. Despite being durable and persistent materials, plastics are reduced by weathering phenomena into debris with a particle size down to nanometers. The fate and ecotoxicological effects of these solid micropollutants are not fully understood yet, but they are raising increasing concerns for the environment and people’s health. Even if different current technologies have the potential to remove plastic particles, the efficiency of these processes is modest, especially for nanoparticles, for which integrated and combined technologies are usually required. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), a class of crystalline nano-porous materials, have unique properties, such as strong coordination bonds, large and robustus porous structures, high accessible surface areas and adsorption capacity, which make them suitable adsorbent materials for micropollutants. This review examines the preliminary results reported in literature indicating that MOFs are promising adsorbents for removal of plastic particles from water, especially when MOFs are integrated in porous composite materials or membranes, where they are able to assure high removal efficiency, superior water flux and antifouling properties, even in presence of other dissolved co-pollutants. Moreover, a recent trend for the alternative preparation of MOFs starting from plastic waste, especially polyethylene terephthalate, as sustainable source of organic linkers is also reviewed, as it represents a promising route for mitigating the impact of the costs deriving from the widescale MOFs production and application. This connubial between MOFs and plastic has the potential to contribute at implementing a more effective waste management and the circular economy principles in the polymer life cycle.
... This nanoplastic can be created either directly from natural or artificial sources, or it can be produced indirectly through the breakdown of microplastics [5]. Additionally, it can get past wastewater treatment facilities that aren't made to take them out of the water [6]. The primary sources of nanoplastics are textiles used in agriculture, disposable plastics, cosmetics, paints, rubber, and urban dust [7]. ...
Scientists discovered plastic in the early 1900s, but didn't realize the detrimental effects its fragmentation could have on the environment 100 years later. In particular, nanoplastics (NPs) particles ranging in size from 1 to 100 nm can cause major problems in the living world due to their high specific surface area for the adsorption other polluting substances from water, and their further bioaccumulation through the food chain. There is no distinctive method to identify, characterize, and quantify nanoplastics in aquatic environments. Although many of the methods developed to study microplastics are not directly applicable to nanoplastics, conventional methods of characterizing nanoplastics are usually tedious because they study individual nanoparticles in isolation. Since nanoplastics resulting from the decomposition of microplastics have different properties than engineering plastic nanoparticles, new techniques need to be developed to help us better understand the seriousness of the nanoplastic problem. Nanoplastic can be isolated from the water environment by a combination of filters and ultracentrifugation. A recent publications states that combining microscopy and spectroscopy, supported by chemometric techniques, will allow a better understand the behavior of nanoplastic particles in the environment and organisms. High hopes are placed on microscopies combined with neural networks for the quantification and characterization of nanoplastics in complex systems. This article describes the degradation pathways of plastics and the formation of nanoplastics in aquatic environments, and possible methods for separation and characterization of nanoplastics in relation to recent publications.
... Chemical induced coagulation-flocculation-sedimentation (CFS) is also a representative method for removing MPs (Esfandiari and Mowla, 2021; Lapointe et al., 2020;Ma et al., 2019b;Monira et al., 2021;Murray and Örmeci, 2020;Xue et al., 2021;Zhang et al., 2020a;Zhang et al., 2021;Zhou et al., 2021b). As defined from its nomenclature, CFS mainly includes three processes: coagulation, flocculation and sedimentation. ...
Microplastics (MPs) are a type of contaminants produced during the use and disposal of plastic products, which are ubiquitous in our lives. With the high specific surface area and strong hydrophobicity, MPs can adsorb various hazardous microorganisms and chemical contaminants from the environment, causing irreversible damage to our humans. It is reported that the MPs have been detected in infant feces and human blood. Therefore, the presence of MPs has posed a significant threat to human health. It is critically essential to develop efficient, scalable and environmentally-friendly methods to remove MPs. Herein, recent advances in the MPs remediation technologies in water and wastewater treatment processes are overviewed. Several approaches, including membrane filtration, adsorption, chemically induced coagulation-flocculation-sedimentation, bioremediation, and advanced oxidation processes are systematically documented. The characteristics, mechanisms, advantages, and disadvantages of these methods are well discussed and highlighted. Finally, the current challenges and future trends of these methods are proposed, with the aim of facilitating the remediation of MPs in water and wastewater treatment processes in a more efficient, scalable, and environmentally-friendly way.
... • The development of pearl microspheres, this is born thanks to the sea mussels that provide a polyphenolic protein that allows sticking to the rocks by means of metal ions and with the union of pearls, chitosan, tamic acid, sodium chloride and others Due to this, microspheres are born with the ability to capture living cells and absorb microplastics (Murray & Örmeci, 2020), however these microspheres reduce photosynthesis upon contact with algae, being an adverse effect to provide a solution (Wan , 2018). ...
The world surrounded by plastics generates a lot of uncertainty and the first victims are sea animals, plastic in contact with the sun is able to disintegrate and generate toxins that are harmful to health. It is for this reason that this research in bibliographic review allows us to know the different solutions to counteract microplastics through the analysis of the Scopus database and the VOSviewer tool that allows us to analyze the data, considering the essential characteristics that are plants, animals, bacteria, algae and technologies that allow the disintegration, elimination and purification of microplastics, graphs and tables were obtained which allow us to recognize the analyzed data, the countries that carry out these investigations and the bibliometric maps worldwide. The results allow us to understand that the existence of microplastics generates many negative consequences for planet earth, however, there are different solutions which we can use and apply to counteract these microplastics, also considering that countries like Peru do not find published scientific research relevant to this matter. The purpose of this research is to allow us to make better decisions and not lose heart in the face of microplastics since it can be fought with the different solutions that we find on planet earth, technology and the other objective is to motivate readers to take action in the issue and allow generating change in the use of plastics.
