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The Float-Sink Behavior of Selected Pre-microwave Irradiated Plastics by Surface Adsorption of Several Dual Depressants

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Abstract

The influential separation of an individual plastic from a mixture of waste plastics is a crucial factor for the quality evaluation of the recycled product. The selected engineering plastics available in municipal and industrial wastes including, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, polycarbonate, and poly oxy methylene microwave irradiated for different microwave powers. The irradiated plastics conditioned with the selected dual depressants with different concentrations and after that, they introduced into the flotation tank with tap water as liquid media. The effects of microwave power and depressant concentration on the hydrophilic-hydrophobic (sink-float) properties of the plastic surface evaluated. It revealed, the microwave irradiation changed the capacity (the adsorbed depressant mono or multilayer molecules), numbers, and concentration of the plastic surface active sites. It resulted in different sink-float properties of the studied plastics. It was beneficial for the flotation of some plastics and depressants. The results evidenced by different techniques including, contact angles (θ), ATR-FTIR spectra, and AFM and SEM images. The driven equations by a design of experiment software (Design-Expert \(\circledR\)) showed suitable conformity between the predicted and actual plastic flotation values.

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Data Availability

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors sincerely thank the staffs of the polymer chemistry laboratory located at faculty of science, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad for their sincere cooperation. Approval no. 3/53616.

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The authors have not disclosed any funding.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

    Hamideh Hoseini, Saeed Ostad Movahed & Shahab Jourabchi

Authors
  1. Hamideh Hoseini
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  2. Saeed Ostad Movahed
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  3. Shahab Jourabchi
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Contributions

HH, SOM, and SJ designed the experiments. Dr. SOM prepared the manuscript with contributions from all co-authors. The authors applied the SDC approach for the sequence of authors.

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Correspondence to Saeed Ostad Movahed.

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Hoseini, H., Ostad Movahed, S. & Jourabchi, S. The Float-Sink Behavior of Selected Pre-microwave Irradiated Plastics by Surface Adsorption of Several Dual Depressants. J Polym Environ 30, 2824–2836 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10924-022-02394-5

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