Weathering of plastic SODIS containers and the impact of ageing on their lifetime and disinfection efficacy

Ángela García-Gil; María Dolores Molina-Ramírez; Rafael A. García-Muñoz; Ramesh Marasini; Lyndon Buck; Kevin G. McGuigan; Javier Marugán

doi:10.1016/j.cej.2022.134881

Weathering of plastic SODIS containers and the impact of ageing on their lifetime and disinfection efficacy

Ángela García-Gil
, María Dolores Molina-Ramírez
, Rafael A. García-Muñoz
, Ramesh Marasini
, Lyndon Buck
, Kevin G. McGuigan
, Javier Marugán^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Universidad Rey Juan Carlos
Buckinghamshire New University
Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

17 Citations (Scopus)

31 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

This work aims to study the ageing of plastic materials suitable for manufacturing solar water disinfection (SODIS) containers, such as PET, polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), and polypropylene (PP) with and without UV-stabiliser. The evolution of mechanical and optical properties, and disinfection rates were studied over different weathering periods. PMMA and PP with a 1% content by weight of UV-stabiliser were shown to be excellent candidate materials for manufacturing SODIS devices, since they presented stable optical and mechanical properties, and both transmit UVB radiation. Since PMMA is a UV resistant but fragile, easily scratched material with a lifetime above one year, it should be selected for static SODIS devices, while PP with 1% of UV-stabiliser should be chosen for portable devices because of its great resistance and elasticity for up to nine months of solar exposure. Both materials were considered profitable on the basis of their lifetime/costs ratio. PET showed great mechanical properties for one year but, in contrast, suffered of a deterioration of its optical properties and disinfection rates. PP without UV-stabilisers suffered a dramatic degradation after a very short exposure of 2 months. Finally, a kinetic model that considers the radiation spectral distribution (thus, the transmittance spectra of the plastics as a function of the ageing time) is proposed to estimate the required solar exposure time to achieve water disinfection for the proposed plastic SODIS containers. A good agreement between predicted and experimental data was achieved, especially for containers manufactured with PET and both PPs (errors below 25%).

Original language	English
Article number	134881
Journal	Chemical Engineering Journal
Volume	435
Issue number	Part 1
Early online date	26 Jan 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2022.134881
Publication status	Published - 1 May 2022

Bibliographical note

© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license 4.0

Funding Information:
The authors acknowledge the financial support of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme in the frame of the WATERSPOUTT project (GA 688928) and PANIWATER project (GA 820718), funded jointly by the European Commission and Department of Science and Technology, India. Ángela García Gil also acknowledges the Spanish Ministry of Education for her FPU grant ( FPU17/04333 ).

Funding

The authors acknowledge the financial support of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme in the frame of the WATERSPOUTT project (GA 688928) and PANIWATER project (GA 820718), funded jointly by the European Commission and Department of Science and Technology, India. Also, the authors would like to thank Laboratorio de Tecnología de Polimeros (LATEP), located at the Rey Juan Carlos University, Spain, for the knowledge and technical support related to the polymers field. Ángela García Gil also acknowledges the Spanish Ministry of Education for her FPU grant ( FPU17/04333 ). The authors acknowledge the financial support of the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme in the frame of the WATERSPOUTT project (GA 688928) and PANIWATER project (GA 820718), funded jointly by the European Commission and Department of Science and Technology, India. Also, the authors would like to thank Laboratorio de Tecnolog?a de Polimeros (LATEP), located at the Rey Juan Carlos University, Spain, for the knowledge and technical support related to the polymers field. ?ngela Garc?a Gil also acknowledges the Spanish Ministry of Education for her FPU grant (FPU17/04333).

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 6 Clean Water and Sanitation

Keywords

E. coli
Kinetic modelling
Photostability
Solar water disinfection
Spectral action
Weatherometer

Access to Document

10.1016/j.cej.2022.134881Licence: CC BY 3.0

Weathering of plastic SODIS containers
© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license 4.0
Final published version, 865 KBLicence: CC BY 3.0

Cite this

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title = "Weathering of plastic SODIS containers and the impact of ageing on their lifetime and disinfection efficacy",

abstract = "This work aims to study the ageing of plastic materials suitable for manufacturing solar water disinfection (SODIS) containers, such as PET, polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), and polypropylene (PP) with and without UV-stabiliser. The evolution of mechanical and optical properties, and disinfection rates were studied over different weathering periods. PMMA and PP with a 1\% content by weight of UV-stabiliser were shown to be excellent candidate materials for manufacturing SODIS devices, since they presented stable optical and mechanical properties, and both transmit UVB radiation. Since PMMA is a UV resistant but fragile, easily scratched material with a lifetime above one year, it should be selected for static SODIS devices, while PP with 1\% of UV-stabiliser should be chosen for portable devices because of its great resistance and elasticity for up to nine months of solar exposure. Both materials were considered profitable on the basis of their lifetime/costs ratio. PET showed great mechanical properties for one year but, in contrast, suffered of a deterioration of its optical properties and disinfection rates. PP without UV-stabilisers suffered a dramatic degradation after a very short exposure of 2 months. Finally, a kinetic model that considers the radiation spectral distribution (thus, the transmittance spectra of the plastics as a function of the ageing time) is proposed to estimate the required solar exposure time to achieve water disinfection for the proposed plastic SODIS containers. A good agreement between predicted and experimental data was achieved, especially for containers manufactured with PET and both PPs (errors below 25\%).",

keywords = "E. coli, Kinetic modelling, Photostability, Solar water disinfection, Spectral action, Weatherometer",

author = "{\'A}ngela Garc{\'i}a-Gil and Molina-Ram{\'i}rez, \{Mar{\'i}a Dolores\} and Garc{\'i}a-Mu{\~n}oz, \{Rafael A.\} and Ramesh Marasini and Lyndon Buck and McGuigan, \{Kevin G.\} and Javier Marug{\'a}n",

note = "{\textcopyright} 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license 4.0 Funding Information: The authors acknowledge the financial support of the European Union{\textquoteright}s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme in the frame of the WATERSPOUTT project (GA 688928) and PANIWATER project (GA 820718), funded jointly by the European Commission and Department of Science and Technology, India. {\'A}ngela Garc{\'i}a Gil also acknowledges the Spanish Ministry of Education for her FPU grant ( FPU17/04333 ). ",

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AU - García-Gil, Ángela

AU - Molina-Ramírez, María Dolores

AU - García-Muñoz, Rafael A.

AU - Marasini, Ramesh

AU - Buck, Lyndon

AU - McGuigan, Kevin G.

AU - Marugán, Javier

N1 - © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license 4.0 Funding Information: The authors acknowledge the financial support of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme in the frame of the WATERSPOUTT project (GA 688928) and PANIWATER project (GA 820718), funded jointly by the European Commission and Department of Science and Technology, India. Ángela García Gil also acknowledges the Spanish Ministry of Education for her FPU grant ( FPU17/04333 ).

PY - 2022/5/1

Y1 - 2022/5/1

N2 - This work aims to study the ageing of plastic materials suitable for manufacturing solar water disinfection (SODIS) containers, such as PET, polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), and polypropylene (PP) with and without UV-stabiliser. The evolution of mechanical and optical properties, and disinfection rates were studied over different weathering periods. PMMA and PP with a 1% content by weight of UV-stabiliser were shown to be excellent candidate materials for manufacturing SODIS devices, since they presented stable optical and mechanical properties, and both transmit UVB radiation. Since PMMA is a UV resistant but fragile, easily scratched material with a lifetime above one year, it should be selected for static SODIS devices, while PP with 1% of UV-stabiliser should be chosen for portable devices because of its great resistance and elasticity for up to nine months of solar exposure. Both materials were considered profitable on the basis of their lifetime/costs ratio. PET showed great mechanical properties for one year but, in contrast, suffered of a deterioration of its optical properties and disinfection rates. PP without UV-stabilisers suffered a dramatic degradation after a very short exposure of 2 months. Finally, a kinetic model that considers the radiation spectral distribution (thus, the transmittance spectra of the plastics as a function of the ageing time) is proposed to estimate the required solar exposure time to achieve water disinfection for the proposed plastic SODIS containers. A good agreement between predicted and experimental data was achieved, especially for containers manufactured with PET and both PPs (errors below 25%).

AB - This work aims to study the ageing of plastic materials suitable for manufacturing solar water disinfection (SODIS) containers, such as PET, polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), and polypropylene (PP) with and without UV-stabiliser. The evolution of mechanical and optical properties, and disinfection rates were studied over different weathering periods. PMMA and PP with a 1% content by weight of UV-stabiliser were shown to be excellent candidate materials for manufacturing SODIS devices, since they presented stable optical and mechanical properties, and both transmit UVB radiation. Since PMMA is a UV resistant but fragile, easily scratched material with a lifetime above one year, it should be selected for static SODIS devices, while PP with 1% of UV-stabiliser should be chosen for portable devices because of its great resistance and elasticity for up to nine months of solar exposure. Both materials were considered profitable on the basis of their lifetime/costs ratio. PET showed great mechanical properties for one year but, in contrast, suffered of a deterioration of its optical properties and disinfection rates. PP without UV-stabilisers suffered a dramatic degradation after a very short exposure of 2 months. Finally, a kinetic model that considers the radiation spectral distribution (thus, the transmittance spectra of the plastics as a function of the ageing time) is proposed to estimate the required solar exposure time to achieve water disinfection for the proposed plastic SODIS containers. A good agreement between predicted and experimental data was achieved, especially for containers manufactured with PET and both PPs (errors below 25%).

KW - E. coli

KW - Kinetic modelling

KW - Photostability

KW - Solar water disinfection

KW - Spectral action

KW - Weatherometer

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DO - 10.1016/j.cej.2022.134881

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85123844993

SN - 1385-8947

VL - 435

JO - Chemical Engineering Journal

JF - Chemical Engineering Journal

IS - Part 1

M1 - 134881

ER -

Weathering of plastic SODIS containers and the impact of ageing on their lifetime and disinfection efficacy

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

UN SDGs

Keywords

Access to Document

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