Transport and Model Calculation of Microplastics Under the Influence of Ionic Type, Strength, and Iron Oxide

Abstract

Microplastics (MPs) in soil have attracted extensive attention as an emerging pollutant, and the transport of MPs is affected by their own physical and chemical properties, the chemical composition of soil solutions, and soil minerals. However, in the presence of oxides, the underlying mechanism for the transport of MPs in different ionic types and ionic strengths is still not fully understood. In this study, the effects of ionic type, ionic strength, and iron oxide on the transport of polystyrene microplastics (PSMPs) with different functional groups were investigated through stability experiments and transport experiments. The colloid transport model, CD-MUSIC model, and DLVO theory were used to explore the transport mechanism. The results showed that normalized concentrations (c/c0) of PSMPs were 0.99 in the NaH2PO4 background and 0.94 in the CaCl2 background, respectively, which indicated that the strongest stability of PSMPs was observed in the former and the weakest in the latter. Different ionic types had different effects on the transport of PSMPs. For the cations Na+ and Ca2+, Ca2+ strongly inhibited PSMPs transport in pure quartz sand because of the bridging effect and strong charge neutralization effect; the recovery rate of the PSMPs in the effluent was (43.83±1.71)%, and a first-order retention coefficient on the second kinetic Site-2 (k2a) was 1.54 min-1. The presence of iron oxide enhanced the inhibition, the recovery rate of the PSMPs in the effluent decreased to (6.04±0.40)%, and k2a increased to 5.33 min-1. For the anions Cl- and PO43-, the transport of PSMPs in pure quartz sand was dominated by surface electronegativity of PSMPs, and PSMPs exhibited lower electronegativity under Cl- background and thus showed higher recovery[(92.95±0.63)%] and lower k2a (0.19 min-1). However, in the presence of iron oxides, the Zeta potential of the quartz sand surface was the controlling factor for PSMPs transport. According to results of the CD-MUSIC model, PO43- could be easily adsorbed on the iron oxide surface to form innersphere complexes, which reduced the surface electronegativity of the iron-loaded quartz sand and enhanced the transport of PSMPs, higher recovery[(76.22±1.39)%], and lower k2a (0.66 min-1). Moreover, the species of the formed innersphere complex was controlled by the PO43- concentration, and different species of innersphere complexes had distinct negative surface charges. Higher surface electronegativity of the iron-loaded quartz sand was observed under higher PO43- concentration, which was not conducive to the transport of PSMPs. Further, the transport ability of PSMPs decreased with the increase in ionic strength. Finally, the Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek (DLVO) theory was used to calculate the variation in the primary barrier between PSMPs and the collector under the conducted experimental conditions, which helped better elucidate the transport behavior of PSMPs. The variation in the primary barrier was consistent with the transport ability of PSMPs, and a higher primary barrier indicated a larger repulsion between PSMPs and the collector, which was in favor of PSMPs transport.