Water Purification and Microplastics Removal using Magnetic Polyoxometalate-Supported Ionic Liquid Phases (magPOM-SILPs)

Filtration is an established water-purification technology. However, due to low flow rates, the filtration of large volumes of water is often not practical. Herein, we report an alternative purification approach in which a magnetic nanoparticle composite is used to remove organic, inorganic, microbial, and microplastics pollutants from water. The composite is based on a polyoxometalate ionic liquid (POM-IL) adsorbed onto magnetic microporous core-shell Fe2O3/SiO2 particles, giving a magnetic POM-supported ionic liquid phase (magPOM-SILP). Efficient, often quantitative removal of several typical surface water pollutants is reported together with facile removal of the particles using a permanent magnet. Tuning of the composite components could lead to new materials for centralized and decentralized water purification systems.