Preparation of micro-nano particles modified discarded face-mask by a versatile thermocompression modification approach and its application to emulsion separation

ABSTRACT

The discarded face mask has caused plastic pollution, which damages the environment. From the perspective of environmental protection and energy-saving, it is a good method to modify the discarded face mask and apply it in other fields, such as emulsion separation. However, the polypropylene (PP) membrane is hard to be modified due to its high stability. To solve this problem, the nano-Al₂O₃ powder was used to modify the PP membranes by a versatile thermocompression method. The modified PP membrane (PP-Al₂O₃-0.05) exhibited better oil-in-water emulsion separation performance than the original PP membrane. The modified PP membrane can be used to separate many kinds of emulsions, and the separation flux was above 2200 L•m⁻²•h⁻¹. And the continuous separation performance of the modified PP membrane was also favorable. Moreover, to verify the versatility of the thermocompression technology, different kinds of materials were applied to modify the PP membrane by this method. We believe that the simple method has practical applications for reusing discarded face masks to alleviate environmental pressure.

KEYWORDS:

• Micro-nano particles
• reutilization of discarded face mask
• thermocompression method
• oil/water separation

Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the Open Project Program of State Key Laboratory of Petroleum Pollution Control (Grant No. PPC2020017); the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (20CX05010A, 21CX06019A); the Graduate Innovation Fund of China University of Petroleum (YCX2021096).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Statement of novelty

In this work, a versatile thermocompression method was used to prepare micro-nano particles modified face masks, and the modified mask can be utilized for emulsion separation. Here are the novelties of this work:

1. A versatile thermocompression method was carried out to modify the face mask (polypropylene (PP) membrane).

2. The molecule structure of PP is stable, and the PPmembrane is hard to be modified. The thermocompression method provides a solution for the problem of the modification of PP.

3. The modified face mask can be used for oil-in-wateremulsion separation, the modified face mask can be carried out for using “solidwaste” to treat “liquid waste.”

4. Different kinds of materials can be used to modify thePP membrane by the thermocompression method.