Repurposing Disposable Face Masks for Oil-Water Separation
Abstract
Repurposing Disposable Face Masks for Oil-Water SeparationThe COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in massive consumption of personal protective equipment (PPE) such as disposable face masks to mitigate the transmission of the SARS-CoV-2, leading to tons of face mask waste every day worldwide. Because disposable face masks can release microplastics, which can seriously contaminate our ecosystem, it is urgent to repurpose or recycle face masks to minimize its environmental impact. Considering the hydrophobic and superoleophilic property of the non-woven fabric face masks, we repurpose disposable face masks to separate oil-water mixtures. Face masks can separate various oils from oil-water mixtures, with high separation efficiency and flux, reaching 98.97% and 4549.37 L·m-2·h-1, respectively. In addition, repurposed face masks can effectively and efficiently separate oil-water mixtures in both strong acid (10M H2SO4), strong base (10M NaOH), and saturated salt (NaCl) with above 98.26% efficiency, suggesting the exceptional durability and robustness. This work provides a viable alternate solution to deal with enormous production and waste of face masks circulating in the environment.
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