BEIJING: Chinese researchers have developed a new method of separating and recovering dyes from wastewater containing organic dyes that utilizes hydrophilic-hydrophobic heterostructure particles (HL-HBPs), and their findings have great industrial and environmental application potential.
A research team at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry developed the new method and published their results in the journal Nature Communications.
“Organic dyes are widely used in industry, scientific research and daily life. Some organic dyes that are used have been discharged into wastewater, resulting in water pollution,” said Wang Shutao, the corresponding author of the article.
Song Yongyang, the first author, said the particles can be dispersed in water and in organic solvents such as ethanol and octane, creating suitable conditions for the efficient recovery of organic dyes.
The HL-HBPs can efficiently adsorb organic dyes from water and release them into organic solvents within seconds, according to the study.
The method has broad application prospects in the fields of environmental pollutant treatment, resource recovery and utilization, and biomolecular detection, Wang said.
