Abstract
Due to natural agents and human activities, large quantities of microplastics enter the marine environment. As an emerging pollutant, MPs have attracted worldwide attention and become a great challenge in recent years. Sodium alginate is a kind of natural polysaccharide with non-toxic, stability, and low cost. In this study, sodium alginate sponge was prepared by secondary freeze-drying technology. Alginate sponge contains a large number of hydrophilic groups; thus, alginate sponge has super water-absorbed (the water absorption rate range from 1193–5232%). Meanwhile, the alginate sponge has high porosity of 81.93% and excellent mechanical properties. The removal efficiency of 100 mg·L−1 microplastics by alginate sponge reached up to 92.3%. The 1 mg·L−1 and 10 mg·L−1 microplastics can be completely absorbed in 27 h and 60 h, respectively. The adsorption mechanism of microplastics adsorbed onto alginate sponge included intra-particle diffusion, hydrogen bonds interactions, and π-π interactions. In addition, the adsorption of MPs loaded Cu2+/Na+ by sponge in complex aqueous environments is still significant. This study expands the development prospect of sodium alginate sponge materials in the field of water treatment and provides a new green approach for the removal of microplastics.
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The datasets used in the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Funding
This study was supported by the Special funds for Basic Scientific Research Business Expenses of Central Universities (22CX01004A-6), State Key Laboratory of Petroleum and Petrochemical Pollutant Control and Treatment Open Fund (PPC2019021, PPC2020015), and China Petroleum Science and Technology Innovation Fund Research Project (2018D-5007-0605).
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Ruojun Ma: conceptualization, methodology, data curation, formal analysis, and writing—original draft. Yongkang Feng: methodology, data curation, formal analysis, and writing—review and editing. Junlong Yu: formal analysis, supervision, and writing—review and editing. Xiaodong Zhao: formal analysis and writing—review and editing. Yi Du: supervision and writing—review and editing. Xiuxia Zhang: methodology, resources, supervision, funding acquisition, and writing—review and editing.
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Highlights
• Sodium alginate sponge was prepared by secondary freeze-drying technology.
• Intra-particle diffusion, the interactions of hydrogen bonds and π-π interactions were main forces.
• The sodium alginate sponge has high porosity and excellent absorption of water.
• The sponge showed good mechanical properties and adsorption capacity of microplastics.
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Ma, R., Feng, Y., Yu, J. et al. Ultralight sponge made from sodium alginate with processability and stability for efficient removal of microplastics. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 104135–104147 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-29740-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-29740-x