Plasma-assisted destruction of polystyrene nanoplastics

Abstract

This study addresses the critical need for the effective removal of nanoplastics (1 nm to 1000 nm), which pose a significant environmental challenge due to their ease of entry into biological systems and poorly understood health impacts. We report our investigation of a plasma-assisted methodology with a falling film plasma reactor to destroy and remove 200 nm polystyrene nanoplastic particles from their aqueous solution. Using the nanoparticle tracking analysis, size exclusion chromatography, and total organic carbon (TOC) analysis, we examined the degradation kinetics of the nanoplastics upon plasma-assisted treatment. A nanoplastic removal rate of 98.4% by particle count was achieved in one hour of treatment. This rate increased to 99.3% after three hours of treatment, along with a 27.4% reduction in the TOC of the solution. The chromatography results indicate that the observed elimination of nanoplastic contaminants was likely through the production of short polystyrene oligomers with molecular weights roughly equivalent to those of two styrene units. The superior efficacy of the plasma-assisted methodology over traditional ozonation to destroy nanoplastics was also illustrated. Our results not only elucidate a hypothesized polystyrene radical decay mechanism but also demonstrate a potential and complementary approach for mitigating nanoplastic pollution in water purification strategies.