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Carbon-based adsorbents for micro/nano-plastics removal: current advances and perspectives

Water Emerging Contaminants & Nanoplastics 2024 36 citations ? Citation count from OpenAlex, updated daily. May differ slightly from the publisher's own count.
Huifang Zheng, Qian Chen, Zhijie Chen

Summary

Scientists reviewed how carbon-based materials like graphene, activated carbon, and carbon nanotubes can be used to remove micro- and nanoplastics from water. Researchers found that these adsorbents show strong potential for capturing tiny plastic particles thanks to their tunable surface properties and high surface area. The study suggests that carbon-based filtration could become an important technology for cleaning microplastic-contaminated water.

Carbon-based adsorbents, such as graphene, graphene oxide (GO), activated carbon/biochar (AC/BC), carbon nanotubes (CNTs), metal-modified carbon, and fly ash, are garnering increasing attention due to their exceptional structural properties, enabling their potential effectiveness in removing microplastics and nano-plastics (MPs/NPs) from aqueous solutions. A key attribute contributing to the efficacy of these carbon adsorbents in addressing MPs/NPs is their flexibly tunable surface properties. To advance the applicability of functionalized carbon adsorbents in the context of MPs/NPs removal, it is necessary to highlight their interactions with MPs/NPs in aqueous environments. The review commences by outlining the main adsorption mechanisms. Subsequently, the adsorption behavior of different types of MPs/NPs on carbon-based adsorbents is analyzed and how different factors influence their adsorption performance is examined. Finally, the review concludes by offering insights into prospective avenues for future research concerning functional carbon adsorbents for MPs/NPs removal.

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