Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) have received extensive attention as a new type of pollutant inin the 21st century, and the ecological and health risks caused by PPCPs have gradually been recognized by government regulatory agencies. Daily use of PPCPs has led to their frequent detection and high concentrations in the influent, effluent, and sludge of wastewater treatment plants, but traditional wastewater treatment processes can't remove them effectively. Most research about enhancing the removal of PPCPs through microbial degradation, photodegradation, and ozonation is still in the laboratory research stage, and the removal effects are not satisfactory when applied to actual sewage treatment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMicroplastics (MPs) and estrogens are high-profile emerging contaminants at present, and MPs might become the carrier of estrogens in the environment and induce combined pollution. To study the adsorption behavior of polyethylene (PE) microplastics to typical estrogens, the adsorption isothermal properties of the six estrogens[estrone (E1), 17-estradiol (17-E2), 17-estradiol (17-E2), estriol (E3), diethylstilbestrol (DES), and ethinylestradiol (17-EE2)] in single-solute and mixed-solute systems were studied through batch equilibrium adsorption experiments, in which the PE microplastics before and after adsorption were characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Then, the site energy distribution theory of the adsorption of six estrogens on PE microplastics was further analyzed based on the Freundlich model.
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