Synthesis and characterization of bismuth magnetic microswimmer for degradation of polystyrene microplastics / Khairunnisa Khairudin

Microplastics ranged from 1 μm to 5 mm but the occurrence of smaller microplastics (micron-sized) has become a major concern due to their larger surface area, which can accumulate and transport other contaminants such as heavy metals and chemical additives and pose potential risks to humans and marine systems. However, microplastics with sizes ranging from 1 μm to 10 μm were found in water treatment plant effluent, indicating that they did not settle through sedimentation and passed through the filtration system. Light-driven microswimmers are one of the promising new technologies for microscale environmental remediation. Hence, this study proposes photocatalytic degradation of 1.1 μm polystyrene latex (PSL) beads microplastics using bismuth magnetic microswimmer. In this study the bismuth magnetic microswimmer was synthesized via facile hydrothermal method and the microswimmer’s motion and photocatalytic degradation of PSL were performed under visible light in an aqueous solution.