Degradation of Emerging Contaminants in Water Using Sulfonated Poly (styrene-isobutylene-styrene) Membranes with Mn3O4 nanoparticles.

The growing demand for clean water combined with the existing scarcity of freshwater resources is a global issue, posing serious challenges to the survival of all living species. During the last few decades, the focus of environmental research has extended beyond the classic pollutants and has shifted to Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products (PPCPs), which are considered contaminants of emerging concern due to their increasing detection in water resources, toxicity, tolerance to biodegradation, and their negative impact on aquatic ecosystems. Once in wastewater, the complete removal of PPCPs is challenging using conventional wastewater treatment processes (WWTP). Thus, polymeric membrane technology hasgained considerable attention for treatment of emerging contaminants in water, and nanocomposites are frequently used to enhance their properties. When considering nano entities for wastewater treatment, manganese oxides (MnOx) have been of interest due to its large metal affinity and high oxidative, antimicrobial and catalytic properties. However, the incorporation of MnO_x into polymeric membranes has not been reported. For this reason, this work presents multiplesyntheses of Mn3O4 nanoparticles prepared using different strategies within a sulfonated SIBS (poly (styrene- isobutylene-styrene)) membrane, and also without the membrane as a supporting medium. Both creations, nanoparticles and SIBS-MnOx membrane, were exposed to an aqueous solution 3% aniline to test their potential as a degrading agent for PPCPs in water. Degradation capacity was evaluated under three conditions (undisturbed, magnetic stirring and UV-light exposure for 30 minutes) and stored at room temperature for a week. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) was employed to monitor the degradation of aniline spectroscopically by recording spectra for all aniline solutions after 30 minutes and 1 week of exposure to the degrading agent. Resulting data revealed that Mn₃O₄ nanoparticles were successful at degrading aniline in water and that best results were achieved in presence of UV light and magnetic stirring. Also, minimal to no difference was found between spectrum obtained at 30 mins and 1 week post contaminant exposure to nanoparticles for any of the experiments conducted, implying degradation occurs within 30 minutes after exposure.Furthermore, the resulting nanoparticles and membranes were subject to different materials characterization techniques: FT-IR, UV-Vis Spectroscopy and Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA). The results confirmed that attained nanoparticle compound was Mn₃O₄ and that the nanoparticles interact with the sulfonic domains of the polymer membrane. This polymer nanocomposite membrane positions itself as a promising solution for degrading emerging contaminants in water and was successful at degrading aniline.