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Microfluidics as a Ray of Hope for Microplastic Pollution
Summary
This review explores how microfluidic technology, which manipulates tiny volumes of fluid on miniature chips, could help address microplastic pollution. Researchers found that microfluidic platforms offer advantages over conventional methods for both detecting and separating microplastics, including lower cost, faster processing, and higher efficiency. The technology shows promise as a practical tool for monitoring and potentially reducing microplastic contamination in the environment.
Microplastic (MP) pollution is rising at an alarming rate, imposing overwhelming problems for the ecosystem. The impact of MPs on life and environmental cycles has already reached a point of no return; yet global awareness of this issue and regulations regarding MP exposure could change this situation in favor of human health. Detection and separation methods for different MPs need to be deployed to achieve the goal of reversing the effect of MPs. Microfluidics is a well-established technology that enables to manipulate samples in microliter volumes in an unprecedented manner. Owing to its low cost, ease of operation, and high efficiency, microfluidics holds immense potential to tackle unmet challenges in MP. In this review, conventional MP detection and separation technologies are comprehensively reviewed, along with state-of-the-art examples of microfluidic platforms. In addition, we herein denote an insight into future directions for microfluidics and how this technology would provide a more efficient solution to potentially eradicate MP pollution.