Surface wettability control and electron transport regulation in zerovalent iron for enhanced removal of emerging polystyrene microplastics-heavy metal contaminants

Abstract

Emerging microplastics-heavy metal (MPs-HM) contaminants in wastewaters pose an emerging health and environmental risk due to their persistence and increasing ecological risks (e.g., “Trojan horse” effect). Hence, removing MPs in solution and preventing secondary releases of HM has become a key challenge when tackling with MPs pollution. Leveraging the hydrophobic nature of MPs and the electron transfer efficiency from Fe0 to HM, we demonstrate an alkylated and sulfidated nanoscale zerovalent iron (AS-nZVI) featuring a delicate “core-shell-hydrophobic film” nanostructure. Exemplified by polystyrene (PS) MPs-Pb(II) removal, the three nanocomponents offer synergistic functions for the rapid separation of MPs, as well as the reduction and stabilization of Pb(II). The outmost hydrophobic film of AS-nZVI greatly improves the anticorrosion performance of nanoscale zerovalent iron and the enrichment abilities of hydrophilic MPs, achieving a maximum removal capacity of MPs to 2725.87 mgMPs·gFe−1. This MPs enrichment promotes the subsequent reductive removal of Pb(II) through the electron transfer from the iron core of AS-nZVI to Pb(II), a process further strengthened by the introduced sulfur. When considering the inevitable aging of MPs in wastewaters due to mechanical wear or microbial degradation, our study concurrently examines the efficiencies and behaviors of AS-nZVI in removing virgin-MPs-Pb(II) and aged-MPs-Pb(II). The batch results reveal that AS-nZVI has an exceptional ability to remove above 99.6 % Pb(II) for all reaction systems. Overall, this work marks a pioneering effort in highlighting the importance of MPs-toxin combinations in dealing with MPs contamination and in demonstrating the utility of nZVI techniques for MPs-contaminated water purification.