ABSTRACT Graphical abstract showing the synthesis of a graphene-polyvinyl alcohol composite, vacuum-filtered onto Whatman paper to create membranes for filtering polystyrene and HDPE microplastics, achieving up to 97% removal efficiency. Microplastics (MPs) are pervasive pollutants that pose serious risks to environmental health and require urgent mitigation. This study aims at developing and evaluating graphene oxide–polyvinyl alcohol (GO–PVA) composite membranes for the efficient separation of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and polystyrene (PS) MPs from aqueous media. GO–PVA membranes were fabricated on four different Whatman filter substrates via vacuum filtration employing glutaraldehyde crosslinking and evaluated in terms of permeation flux, removal efficiency, and fouling behaviour under varying operating conditions. Among the tested supports, Grade 4 loaded with 4.0 mg of GO achieved an optimal balance, delivering a flux of 127.8 L·m−2·h−1·bar−1 and MP rejection in 20–26 s contact time. Under these conditions, HDPE removal exceeded 90%, whereas PS removal ranged from 70 to 78%, reflecting polymer-specific differences. Membranes showed peak performance at pH 8, where −95.32-mV zeta potential boosted electrostatic repulsion between the negatively charged membrane and MPs. Across five recycling processes, the average flux recovery rate was 64.73%, corresponding to a fouling extent of 35.27%, with Grade-54 demonstrating the lowest fouling and highest flux stability among the tested grades. Overall, GO-PVA membranes offer a promising, reusable, high-HDPE removal alternative for synthetic wastewater, though further optimization is required for PS filtration.
Roy et al. (Wed,) studied this question.
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