Proceedings of MATSUS Spring 2025 Conference (MATSUSSpring25)
Publication date: 16th December 2024
Continuously increasing consumption of pharmaceuticals and their insufficient removal at wastewater treatment plants have raised concerns regarding environmental and human health. Among these, analgesics such as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are frequently found in both influent and effluent wastewater.[1] After ending up to the environment, the pharmaceuticals can find their way into drinking water, underscoring the extent of the problem.[2] New removal methods are needed to tackle this problem.
Approaches, where the pharmaceuticals are degraded directly in water, such as photodegradation and electrochemical degradation techniques have shown promising results. However, their use in wastewater treatment plants are currently limited e.g. by their complexity and the byproducts that are formed during the incomplete degradation of pharmaceuticals. In some cases, these byproducts can be even more toxic than the pharmaceuticals prior to the treatment.[3] In contrast, adsorption emerges as a valuable approach due to its simplicity, efficiency, and the fact that no toxic transformation products are formed during the process.
Polydopamine, a bioinspired polymer, has proven to be an excellent candidate in adsorbing various organic molecules.[4] Due to its diverse chemical structure, it offers a lot of favorable sites for NSAIDs to bind to its surface. Respectively, MXenes, a class of 2D materials, have potential in water purification applications due to their large tunable surface area.
In this work, MXene polydopamine adsorbents were prepared to capture NSAIDs from water. Ti3C2Tx MXene flakes were decorated with polydopamine nanoparticles, to combine advantages of both materials. The polydopamine nanoparticles were synthesized using a method developed by Al-waeel et al.[5] The adsorption capability of the MXene polydopamine adsorbents was evaluated by mixing them in aqueous solution of diclofenac sodium salt and monitoring the changes in the diclofenac concentration using UV-Vis spectrophotometer. For comparison, the experiment was repeated using granular activated charcoal as the adsorbent.
Maa- ja vesitekniikan tuki, Doctoral Programme in Exact Sciences (EXACTUS) Univeristy of Turku Graduate School (UTUGS), TOP-Säätiö, and M-ERA.net InsBIOration project are gratefully acknowledged for funding.
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