Comparing the adsorption of methyl orange and malachite green on similar yet distinct polyamide microplastics: Uncovering hydrogen bond interactions.

Microplastics (MPs) and dye pollutants are widespread in aquatic environments. Here, the adsorption characteristics of anionic dye methyl orange (MO) and cationic dye malachite green (MG) on polyamide 6 (PA6) and polyamide 66 (PA66) MPs were investigated, including kinetics, isotherm equilibrium and thermodynamics. The co-adsorption of MO and MG under different pH was also evaluated. The results reveal that the adsorption process of MO and MG is suitably expounded by a pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The process can be characterized by two stages: internal diffusion and external diffusion. The isothermal adsorption equilibrium of MO and MG can be effectively described using the Langmuir model, signifying monolayer adsorption. Furthermore, the thermodynamic results indicated that the adsorption was spontaneous with exothermic and endothermic properties, respectively. The results of binary systems reveal that MO dominates the adsorption at low pH (2-5), while MG dominates at high pH (8-10). Strong competitive adsorption was observed between MO and MG in neutral conditions (pH 6-8). The desorption experiments confirm that PA6 and PA66 could serve as potential carriers of MO and MG. The interaction between dyes and polyamide MPs is primarily mediated through hydrogen bonds and electrostatic attraction. The results reveal that PA6 formed more hydrogen bonds with the dyes, resulting in higher adsorption capacity than that of PA66. This difference can be attributed to the disparities in the synthesis process and polymerization method. Our study uncovered the adsorption mechanism of dye pollutants on PA6 and PA66, and provided a more comprehensive theoretical basis for the risk assessment concerning different types of polyamide MPs in aquatic environments.

Competition adsorption of malachite green and rhodamine B on polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride microplastics in aqueous environment.

Microplastics (MPs) will cause compound pollution by combining with organic pollutants in the aqueous environment. It is important for environmental protection to study the adsorption mechanism of different MPs for pollutants. In this study, the adsorption behaviors of malachite green (MG) and rhodamine B (RhB) on polyethylene (PE) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) were studied in single systems and binary systems, separately. The results show that in single system, the adsorptions of between MPs for pollutants (MG and RhB) are more consistent with the pseudo-second-order kinetics and Freundlich isotherm model, the adsorption capacity of both MPs for MG is greater than that of RhB. The adsorption capacities of MG and RhB were 7.68 mg/g and 2.83 mg/g for PVC, 4.52 mg/g and 1.27 mg/g for PE. In the binary system, there exist competitive adsorption between MG and RhB on MPs. And the adsorption capacities of PVC for the two dyes are stronger than those of PE. This is attributed to the strong halogen-hydrogen bond between the two dyes and PVC, and the larger specific surface area of PVC. This study revealed the interaction and competitive adsorption mechanism between binary dyes and MPs, which is of great significance for understanding the interactions between dyes and MPs in the multi-component systems.

Precise regulation of defect concentration in MOF and its influence on photocatalytic overall water splitting.

In this work, the defective Cu-BDC with different defect concentration and Cu1+/Cu2+ coordinatively unsaturated sites (CUS) content were designed and synthesized by introducing defective linkers with different pKa values. The low-concentration defects in Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) structure act as the active sites to enhance their photocatalytic activity. In contrast, the high concentration defects serve as the recombination centers of photogenerated electrons and holes to decrease the transfer efficiency of charge carriers. Cu-BDC-FBA shows an excellent bifunctional photocatalytic performance for overall water splitting due to the suitable defect concentration, which gives an oxygen production rate of 3114 µmol g-1 h-1 and hydrogen production rate of 16 829 µmol g-1 h-1, respectively. It is expected that this study can deepen the understanding of the relationship between defects and photocatalytic activity, and provide a new idea for the design and synthesis of defective MOFs photocatalysts with excellent performance.

Adsorption of Diclofenac Sodium by Aged Degradable and Non-Degradable Microplastics: Environmental Effects, Adsorption Mechanisms.

Microplastics (MPs) are novel pollutants, which can carry toxic contaminants and are released in biota and accumulate. The adsorption behavior of MPs and aged MPs has attracted extensive attention. In this paper, the aging process of polystyrene (PS) and poly (butyleneadipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT) plastics under ultraviolet (UV) irradiation at a high temperature and their adsorption properties for the contaminant diclofenac sodium (DCF) before and after aging was investigated. There are many factors affecting the adsorption capacity of MPs. In this experiment, three aspects of MPs, organic pollutants, and environmental factors are explored. The Freundlich model as well as the pseudosecondary kinetic model is more applicable to the process of DCF adsorption by MPs. The main effects of adsorption of organic pollutants by MPs are electrostatic interactions, hydrogen-halogen bonds, and hydrophobic interactions. The adsorption capacity of the UV-aged MPs on DCF is significantly enhanced, and the order of adsorption capacity is Q(A-PBAT) (27.65 mg/g) > Q (A-PS) (23.91 mg/g) > Q (PBAT) (9.30 mg/g) > Q (PS) (9.21 mg/g). The results show that more active sites are generated on the surface of MPs after aging, which can enhance their adsorption capacity for organic pollutants. This adsorption mechanism will increase their role as contaminant carriers in the aquatic food chain.

Determination of Nitrofuran Metabolites in Fish by Ultraperformance Liquid Chromatography-Photodiode Array Detection with Thermostatic Ultrasound-Assisted Derivatization.

Nitrofuran (NF) is a class of broad-spectrum antibiotics that are used illegally in animal feeding. NF and its metabolites have proven to pose potential risk to human health. To address the current analytical needs to quantify low levels of NF metabolites in animal foods, a sensitive method was developed for simultaneous detection of four NF metabolites in fish products by an ultraperformance liquid chromatography-diode array detector (UPLC-DAD). With 2-nitrobenzaldehyde (2-NBA) as the derivatizing reagent, the metabolites were hydrolyzed and derivatized under the assistance of thermostatic ultrasound. Compared with the current detection methods, the time of the derivatization reaction has been shortened from 16 to 2 h. The relative coefficient of four NF metabolite derivatives reached more than 0.998, with excellent linear relationship. The limits of detection (LODs) and limits of quantification (LOQs) of six repeated determinations reached 0.25-0.33 and 0.80-1.10 µg/kg, respectively. For all four NF metabolites, the limit of detection of the method was below the minimum required performance limit (MRPL) of 1.0 µg/kg, which makes it compatible with the EU requirements. The recoveries ranging from 89.8 to 101.9% with relative standard deviation below 6.5% were obtained for all of the NF metabolites. What's more, this method was successfully applied for the determination of four NF metabolites in the fish products. As a promising approach, this method could also be extended for the quantitation of NF metabolites in aquaculture and poultry products.