Treatment of microplastics in water by anodic oxidation: A case study for polystyrene

Water pollution by microplastics (MPs) is a contemporary issue which has recently gained lots of attentions. Despite this, very limited studies were conducted on the degradation of MPs. In this paper, we reported the treatment of synthetic mono-dispersed suspension of MPs by using electrooxidation (EO) process. MPs synthetic solution was prepared with distilled water and a commercial polystyrene solution containing a surfactant. In addition to anode material, different operating parameters were investigated such as current intensity, anode surface, electrolyte type, electrolyte concentration, and reaction time. The obtained results revealed that the EO process can degrade 58 ± 21% of MPs in 1 h. Analysis of the operating parameters showed that the current intensity, anode material, electrolyte type, and electrolyte concentration substantially affected the MPs removal efficiency, whereas anode surface area had a negligible effect. In addition, dynamic light scattering analysis was performed to evaluate the size distribution of MPs during the degradation. The combination of dynamic light scattering, scanning electron microscopy, total organic carbon, and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy results suggested that the MPs did not break into smaller particles and they degrade directly into gaseous products. This work demonstrated that EO is a promising process for degradation of MPs in water without production of any wastes or by-products.