Surface Activation of PLA and PLA-CeO₂ Films by Atmospheric Pressure Air Plasma for Catalytic Water Treatment
摘要
The growing demand for clean water is driving the development of sustainable technologies for dye removal from wastewater. In this study, recycled polylactic acid (PLA) films and PLA-CeO₂ nanocomposites were investigated as catalytic media for plasma-assisted degradation of methylene blue (MB). Before degradation experiments, the films were surface-activated using an atmospheric-pressure corona discharge. The use of recycled PLA contributes to waste valorization within a circular economy framework. Surface analyses by Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) showed that plasma activation induces chain scission, increases crystallinity, and enhances surface roughness in PLA films. In PLA-CeO₂ nanocomposites, plasma treatment increases nanoparticle accessibility while preserving polymer structural integrity. Methylene blue degradation was carried out in a continuous flow plasma-liquid system using an atmospheric-pressure air corona discharge. Under these conditions, plasma-treated PLA films served as catalysts, achieving complete MB degradation (~100 %) within 70 minutes. Plasma-treated PLA-CeO₂ films showed a rapid initial degradation, achieving approximately 90% removal after 20 minutes, followed by a slower phase reaching approximately 96% after 60 minutes. The high catalytic activity of plasma-activated PLA is attributed to plasma-induced hydrolysis and the generation of reactive surface sites that favor heterogeneous oxidation processes. Notably, plasma-treated PLA films exhibited degradation efficiencies comparable to those of CeO₂ containing composites. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report to demonstrate the direct catalytic role of a plasma-activated polymeric substrate in dye degradation, positioning recycled PLA as a sustainable, low-cost platform for plasma-assisted wastewater treatment.
Graphical Abstract