Hydrophobic interaction between nanoplastics and surfactant antagonistically shielding the toxicity of surfactant to syntrophic methanogenesis.

Surfactants and nanoplastics are emerging contaminants in organic wastewater. Although the influences of surfactants on the anaerobic digestion of organic wastewater were widely investigated and confirmed, the regulation of co-existed surfactants and nanoplastics on syntrophic methanogenesis was not clear. This study explored the inhibitory mechanism of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) surfactant on syntrophic methanogenesis and deciphered how polypropylene (PP) nanoplastics regulating this inhibition.