Current status of microplastics and nanoplastics removal methods: Summary, comparison and prospect

In modern society, plastics also play an indispensable role in people's lives due to their various excellent properties. However, when these plastic products are discarded after being used, after being subjected to external influences, they will continue to be worn, damaged and degraded into micro- and nano-scale plastics, which are microplastics and nanoplastics (M/NPs). Although people's attention has been paid to M/NPs at present, the focus is still mainly on the detection and hazard of M/NPs, and how to remove M/NPs is relatively less popular. This review was written in order to draw the attention of more researchers to remove M/NPs. This review first briefly introduces the research background of M/NPs, and also shows the main analytical methods currently used for qualitative and quantitative M/NPs. Then, most of the current literature on the removal of M/NPs was collected, and they were classified, summarized, and introduced according to the classification of physical, physicochemical, and biological methods. The advantages and disadvantages of various methods are summarized, and they are also compared, which can help more researchers choose the appropriate method for research. In addition, the application scenarios of these methods are briefly introduced. Finally, some future research directions are proposed for the current research status of M/NPs removal. It is hoped that this will further promote the development on the method of removing M/NPs.