Cellulose and chitin foam can remove almost all microplastics from water | Research

A foam made from cellulose and chitin can remove up to 99.9% of microplastics from water and maintains its efficiency even after several cycles of use.

Microplastic pollution in terrestrial and aquatic environments is increasing significantly and the development of universal approaches to remediation is urgently needed. To find a solution, the China-based research team set out to develop a sustainable and adaptable adsorption material through supramolecular self-assembly of two of the most abundant polysaccharides in nature: chitin, derived from squid, and cellulose. cotton.

The resulting biopolymer foam had a highly porous, interconnected structure with a negatively and positively charged surface and numerous active sites, which, as the researchers explained, ensured “multilevel interactions for efficient microplastic removal.”

During initial testing, they found that the material was able to efficiently adsorb tiny particles of polystyrene, polymethyl methacrylate, polypropylene and polyethylene terephthalate due to numerous intermolecular interactions between the foam and the plastics.

They then examined whether the foam would work well in samples of irrigation, lake and coastal waters – which contain a variety of toxic metals, chemical dyes and other pollutants – and found that the material was effective at removing microplastics from 98% to 99.9% removed. Even after five cycles, the foam had a removal efficiency between 95% and 98%.

They also found that it had improved adsorption performance when bacteria and lead(II) were present in the water at the same time.