Preparation of micro-nano particles modified discarded face-mask by a versatile thermocompression modification approach and its application to emulsion separation

Abstract

ABSTRACT The discarded face mask has caused plastic pollution, which damages the environment. From the perspective of environmental protection and energy-saving, it is a good method to modify the discarded face mask and apply it in other fields, such as emulsion separation. However, the polypropylene (PP) membrane is hard to be modified due to its high stability. To solve this problem, the nano-Al2O3 powder was used to modify the PP membranes by a versatile thermocompression method. The modified PP membrane (PP-Al2O3-0.05) exhibited better oil-in-water emulsion separation performance than the original PP membrane. The modified PP membrane can be used to separate many kinds of emulsions, and the separation flux was above 2200 L•m−2•h−1. And the continuous separation performance of the modified PP membrane was also favorable. Moreover, to verify the versatility of the thermocompression technology, different kinds of materials were applied to modify the PP membrane by this method. We believe that the simple method has practical applications for reusing discarded face masks to alleviate environmental pressure.