The evaluation of fibrous disposable facemask for oil sorption and efficient oil/water separation

Abstract

During the pandemic period, people have used various personal protective equipment including gloves, face mask and face shields. Among them, disposable face mask plays a critical role to control the spread of COVID-19. Hence, there is an urgent need to evaluate and suspend such waste materials from environment. Herein, we have investigated the potential use of disposable face mask as oil sorbent material for efficient oil/water separation due to their hydrophobic/oleophilic characteristics. Some structural characterization techniques are employed to examine the face mask. A number of tests including absorbency, oil/water separation stability in oils and waters, selective removal of oils in different water medium have been systematically investigated. The outcomes show that waste face mask have great potential in the field of oil-water separation that achieve selectively separate the oil from oily wastewater.

Keywords

• Absorbent
• disposable face mask
• oil/water seperation
• Covid-19

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