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Hybrid Chitin-Coffee Ground Biochar Foam for Microplastic Adsorption
Summary
Researchers developed a sustainable hybrid foam made from waste seafood chitin and used coffee ground biochar for filtering microplastics from water. The study found that the foam achieved consistently high adsorption efficiency across seawater, river water, and deionized water, particularly for polystyrene microspheres larger than 1 micrometer, offering an eco-friendly approach to microplastic removal.
Microplastics threaten ecosystems and human health. Based on the existing microplastic adsorption solutions, we hypothesized a sustainable filtration method based on a hybrid chitin-coffee ground biochar foam made of β/α-chitin foam from waste seafood and coffee ground biochar from used coffee grounds to adsorb microplastic particles in water would be efficient. The hybrid chitin-coffee ground biochar foam achieved consistently high adsorption efficiency in seawater and showed strong performance for fluorescent PS microspheres larger than 1 μm in deionized water, river water and seawater. This adsorption performance resulted from the combined effects of electrostatic attraction, hydrogen bonding, hydrophobic, and π–π interactions. This study demonstrates that waste-derived materials were able to offer a low-cost, environmentally friendly, and efficient solution for microplastic adsorption from water.