PbO₂ Potential in Anodic Oxidation for Microplastics Removal from Bay Water in Philippines

The increasing abundance of microplastics in the water bodies poses a huge threat to the survival of marine organisms and to the health of people. Presently, a bay is one kind of surface water that has been contaminated by microplastics. One of the recently developed treatment techniques for eliminating microplastics from water is anodic oxidation. This study examined the potential of anodic oxidation with a lead dioxide (PbO₂) anode to remove microplastics from real water samples collected from Bacoor Bay, Philippines. Microplastics are broken down into nontoxic molecules like CO2 and H2O by hydroxyl (•OH) radicals produced during anodic oxidation, which eliminates the need for additional chemicals that could cause pollution of another form. Two factors, reaction time and current intensity, were investigated for their effects on removal efficiency. The concentration of microplastics in Bacoor Bay was discovered to be 49.56 mg/L. The water samples contained a variety of microplastics types, the bulk of which were fragment-shaped and ranged in size from less than 1 mm to 5 mm. The study's findings demonstrated that anodic oxidation resulted in a 42.53% microplastics removal efficiency and a 55.64% turbidity removal efficiency. Considering the results of this study, anodic oxidation using PbO₂ anode is a promising treatment method for microplastics, which can help alleviate the problem regarding microplastics.