Continuous flowing polarization system containing absorbents for acceleration of absorption of oil-in-water micelles in water by electric dipole moments

Abstract

The concentration gradient between solution to absorbent predominately determines the absorption and desorption rates, limited the efficiency of wastewater treatment at low pollutant concentration. Dielectrophoresis force (FDEP) is generated with polarization to assemble the absorbents and oil-in-water micelles (OWM) in a home-made parallel plate capacitor (PPC) full of adsorbent solution and enhance the efficiency of pollutant removal. Graphene oxide (GO) and Fe3O4 nanoparticles (FN) are coated on polystyrene microspheres (PSs) as the core/shell PS/GO/FN absorbents that were encapsulated within the PPC to treat the solution of OWM. The FDEP enhances the adsorption rate ca. 2–4 times with polarization at 14 V and 100 kHz. 50 % volume reducing of pure water through the PPC for the recycling of the absorbents could achieve at 1200 kHz. The high complex permittivity of the GO/FN coating facilitates the response to the alternative electric field to induce the dipoles in the object without significant damage. The PS/GO/FNs was reused ca. 10 times at 25 mL min−1 of flow rate through the PPC between 100 and 1200 kHz. The continuous dielectric polarization system improves the absorption rates and efficiency of absorbent recycling with low secondary pollution.