Photocatalytic mineralization of nanoplastics recovered from water by a membrane process

The quality of life can be improved by removing pollutants from water. In particular pollution by micro and nano plastics has become one of the most serious environmental problems globally due to their impact on the environment and humans. The significant and incessant growth of plastics waste need to implement strategies for the complete removal of plastic pollutants [1]. A green method to obtain mineralization of pollutants in water under mild conditions is the photocatalytic process [2-3]. To improve the performance of the photocatalytic system for its application in a real wastewater purification plant, the photocatalytic process has been combined with a membrane technology. The nanofiltration process, by treating water polluted by added nanoplastics in order to simulate their low concentration in wastewater, enabled their recovery and concentration prior to photocatalytic tests. The experiments showed a complete mineralization of nanoplastics in 24 h by using titanium dioxide as photocatalyst under UV light irradiation, these results were confirmed by TOC and py-GCMS analyses. The combination of these two systems can be very interesting to reduce/eliminate nano plastics from wastewater.