A research team from South Korea’s Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST) announced the development of an eco-friendly microplastic removal technology that can remove micro- to nano-sized microplastics in water.
Prof. Lee Ju-hyuck's (DGIST) research team, in joint research with Dr. Cho Han-cheol's team at the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology, developed the world's first eco-friendly power generation device that removes fine particles in the water. It is a collaboration between the triboelectric nagogenerator (TENG) of Professor Lee Ju-hyuck's research team and the particle removal technology using electrophoresis of Dr. Cho Han-cheol's team.
The new porous microstructure-based TENG developed by the teams showed more than threefold higher output than the existing TENG. The test of the new TENG also showed that the removal rate of micro-sized microplastic particles was 21.4 percent, about 5.6 times higher than that of the existing TENG, which was recorded at 3.8 percent. In addition, it was confirmed that the technology can remove micro-toxic particles such as nano-sized zinc oxides and silicon dioxides.
The result of the research was published in Nano Energy, a prominent international scientific journal in energy engineering.
