Microplastic pollution in seawater environments poses a significant challenge regarding its potential risk to both ecological and biological health, thereby prompting an imperative need for effective microplastic detection and filtration technologies. Conventional microplastic filtration systems, such as membrane, sand, or biological filters, suffer from several limitations, including low filtration efficiency, high operation cost, and limited scalability.
To address this, we demonstrate a novel mesoporous nano-array structure filter that enables a fast, cost-effective, and efficient removal of microplastics from marine water. This study evaluated the filtration performance of the developed nanoarray-integrated filtration system and established a spectroscopic calibration method for quantifying microplastic concentrations in seawater.
A well-defined mesoporous layered protonate titanate (LPT) nanoarrays were synthesized on silicon carbide (SiC) monolith using a wet-chemical approach. Subsequent ion-exchange with metal cations, including Cu and Ni, was employed to manipulate the porosity of LPT.
The filtration performance and detection sensitivity were evaluated under a controlled flow condition. UV-Vis spectrophotometric analysis of the standard polymer solution provided the basis for reliable calibration, enabling accurate microplastic quantification. The filtration results demonstrated that this system exhibited superior filtration efficiency, ranging from 94% to 99.9%, along with high sensitivity, enabling the quantification of microplastic concentrations as low as 0.01 g/L. Furthermore, a comprehensive microplastic detection and capture system was established through the implementation of optical microscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), as well as the data processing assisted by machine learning algorithms,
These results highlight the scalable potential of mesoporous nano-array structured filtration system for microplastic capture in seawater, with good integration potential into environmental monitoring framework and advanced water purification technologies.