The Performance of Carbonate-Modified Nonionic Surfactants in Microplastic Flotation

For a group of nonionic surfactants with polar head groups synthesized by the copolymerization ethylene oxide and carbon dioxide, potential for their application in foam flotation microplastic particles was investigated. Their performance compared to conventional that correlated adsorption behavior at water–air surface through maximum-bubble-pressure technique. The carbonate content surfactant increased biodegradability affected foaming properties process. Since inserted units hydrophilicity whole but decreased polarity headgroups, number can be considered as an independent tuning parameter adjusting these particular application. With this feature, countercurrent trends two most important indicators, namely removal rate enrichment factor, resolved.