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  4. A Comparative Study on the Stability and Coagulation Removal of Aged vs. Non-Aged Nanoplastics in Surface Water
 
research article

A Comparative Study on the Stability and Coagulation Removal of Aged vs. Non-Aged Nanoplastics in Surface Water

Chen, Meng
•
Nan, Jun
•
Breider, Florian  
November 12, 2024
Journal of Hazardous Materials

Nanoplastics (NPs) are released into surface water due to the widespread use of plastics, undergoing aging from environmental and human factors that alter their physical and chemical characteristics. However, detecting NPs remains challenging, resulting in limited research on their behavior in surface water and their removal efficiency by drinking water treatment. This study utilizes palladium-doped polystyrene nanoplastics (PSNPs) as tracers to enable precise detection and quantification through ICP-MS, thereby overcoming the limitations of conventional detection methods. PSNPs are aged using solar irradiation and ozone to simulate both natural and artificial aging processes, affecting the physical and chemical properties of NPs, which in turn influence their behavior in water treatment systems. Moreover, the study investigates the impact of various coagulation conditions, including different coagulants (AlCl3 and PACl), pH levels (4-9), and humic acid (HA) concentrations (0-10 mg/L), on the of both aged and nonaged NPs. The results demonstrate solar aging triggers significant morphological changes in PSNPs, while ozone aging induces more oxygen functional groups on PSNPs (CIozone=20.99; CIsolar=0.70), increasing sensitivity to HA concentrations and resulting in reduced removal efficiencies for ozone aged PSNPs by AlCl3 (68.68%) and PACl (74.74%). In addition, PACl achieves higher PSNPs removal efficiencies (REmin=88.59%) than that of AlCl3 (REmin=85.57%) under varied pH levels. This research fills a gap in understanding aged NPs behavior in surface water and offers practical solutions for optimizing coagulation for NPs removal, enhancing our ability to predict NPs environmental fate and manage NPs pollution to ensure drinking water safety.

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Type
research article
DOI
10.1016/j.jhazmat.2024.136490
Author(s)
Chen, Meng
Nan, Jun
Breider, Florian  

EPFL

Date Issued

2024-11-12

Publisher

Elsevier BV

Published in
Journal of Hazardous Materials
Start page

136490

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
GR-CEL  
Available on Infoscience
November 13, 2024
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/242012
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