TY - JOUR
T1 - Plasma degradation of contaminated PPE: an energy-efficient method to treat contaminated plastic waste
AU - Marco Tobías, Mariano
AU - Åhlén, Michelle
AU - Cheung, Ocean
AU - Bucknall, David G.
AU - McCoustra, Martin R. S.
AU - Yiu, Humphrey Hak Ping
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors acknowledge the financial support from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council EPSRC (grant number EP/L016419/1) for Ph.D. studentship to M.M.T. via the CRITICAT programme, The Swedish Research Council (Grant no. 2020-04029) and The Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development (FORMAS, Grant No. 2018-00651).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s).
PY - 2023/4/19
Y1 - 2023/4/19
N2 - The use of PPE has drastically increased because of the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic as disposable surgical face masks made from non-biodegradable polypropylene (PP) polymers have generated a significant amount of waste. In this work, a low-power plasma method has been used to degrade surgical masks. Several analytical techniques (gravimetric analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), attenuated total reflection-infra-red spectroscopy (ATR-IR), x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), thermogravimetric analysis/differential scanning calorimetry (TGA/DSC) and wide-angle x-ray scattering (WAXS)) were used to evaluate the effects of plasma irradiation on mask samples. After 4 h of irradiation, an overall mass loss of 63 ± 8%, through oxidation followed by fragmentation, was observed on the non-woven 3-ply surgical mask, which is 20 times faster than degrading a bulk PP sample. Individual components of the mask also showed different degradation rates. Air plasma clearly represents an energy-efficient tool for treating contaminated PPE in an environmentally friendly approach.
AB - The use of PPE has drastically increased because of the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic as disposable surgical face masks made from non-biodegradable polypropylene (PP) polymers have generated a significant amount of waste. In this work, a low-power plasma method has been used to degrade surgical masks. Several analytical techniques (gravimetric analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), attenuated total reflection-infra-red spectroscopy (ATR-IR), x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), thermogravimetric analysis/differential scanning calorimetry (TGA/DSC) and wide-angle x-ray scattering (WAXS)) were used to evaluate the effects of plasma irradiation on mask samples. After 4 h of irradiation, an overall mass loss of 63 ± 8%, through oxidation followed by fragmentation, was observed on the non-woven 3-ply surgical mask, which is 20 times faster than degrading a bulk PP sample. Individual components of the mask also showed different degradation rates. Air plasma clearly represents an energy-efficient tool for treating contaminated PPE in an environmentally friendly approach.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85153209825&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41529-023-00350-9
DO - 10.1038/s41529-023-00350-9
M3 - Article
C2 - 37096160
SN - 2397-2106
VL - 7
JO - npj Materials Degradation
JF - npj Materials Degradation
M1 - 33
ER -