Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Bioadsorbents for removal of microplastics from water ecosystems: a review

This review analyzes over 200 studies on using natural biological materials, called bioadsorbents, to remove microplastics from water. Researchers found that materials like chitosan, biochar, and cellulose show strong potential for capturing microplastic particles from contaminated water. The study highlights bioadsorbents as a promising, eco-friendly alternative to conventional water treatment methods for addressing microplastic pollution.

2024 International Journal of Sustainable Engineering 25 citations
Article Tier 2

Coagulative removal of microplastics from aqueous matrices: Recent progresses and future perspectives

This review examines how coagulation, a common water treatment technique, can be used to remove microplastics from water. Researchers compared the effectiveness of different coagulants, finding that natural options like chitosan and protein-based coagulants achieved removal rates above 90 percent. The study highlights the promise of natural coagulants as a more sustainable approach to tackling microplastic contamination in water treatment systems.

2023 The Science of The Total Environment 71 citations
Article Tier 2

Advances in chitin and chitosan-based materials for microplastics treatment

This review summarizes advances in using chitin and chitosan-based materials for removing microplastics from wastewater. Researchers highlight that while these natural biopolymers offer promising adsorption capabilities due to their functional groups, challenges such as low selectivity and limited mechanical strength have constrained practical use. The study covers various treatment approaches including adsorption, coagulation-flocculation, membrane filtration, and air flotation technologies.

2025 Carbohydrate Polymers 6 citations
Article Tier 2

Adsorption of Organic Pollutants from Wastewater Using Chitosan-Based Adsorbents

This review examines how chitosan, a natural material made from shrimp and crab shells, can be used to remove organic pollutants including microplastics from wastewater. Different modified forms of chitosan can effectively absorb a range of contaminants like antibiotics, pesticides, and plastic particles from water. Since chitosan is biodegradable and non-toxic, it offers a sustainable alternative to chemical-based water treatment methods for reducing human exposure to microplastics and other pollutants.

2025 Polymers 28 citations
Article Tier 2

Biocompatible materials as a sustainable solution to micro- and nanoplastic remediation and their challenges

This review evaluates biocompatible materials—including chitosan, cellulose, and biopolymers—as sustainable sorbents for removing micro- and nanoplastics from water, highlighting their advantages of biodegradability and low toxicity compared to conventional treatment media.

2025 Journal of environmental chemical engineering
Article Tier 2

Biodegradable Nanomaterials For Removal Of Microplastics Removal In Aquatic Ecosystems

This study explores the potential of biodegradable nanomaterials made from natural polymers like chitosan, cellulose, and lignin to remove microplastics from water. These materials have high surface areas and can be engineered to selectively attract and capture plastic particles through surface interactions. The approach offers a greener alternative to conventional filtration and chemical treatment methods, which are often energy-intensive and can create secondary pollution.

2025 International Journal of Environmental Sciences 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Greener Microplastics Removal: Progressive Replacement of Iron‐Based Coagulants with Sodium Alginate and Chitosan to Enhance Sustainability

Researchers tested whether natural biopolymers like sodium alginate and chitosan could progressively replace iron-based coagulants for removing microplastics from wastewater. They found that partial substitution maintained effective microplastic removal while reducing the environmental footprint of the coagulation process. The study suggests that blending conventional and biopolymer coagulants offers a more sustainable approach to microplastic removal in wastewater treatment.

2025 ChemPlusChem 8 citations
Article Tier 2

Natural and Natural-Based Polymers: Recent Developments in Management of Emerging Pollutants

This review explores how natural and bio-based polymers can be used to remove a range of emerging pollutants from water, including microplastics, pharmaceuticals, and pesticides. It highlights natural materials as sustainable, cost-effective alternatives to synthetic adsorbents and aligns with green chemistry principles. The work is relevant to microplastics in that it frames them as part of a broader emerging contaminant problem and explores biopolymer-based solutions for water purification.

2023 Polymers 14 citations
Systematic Review Tier 1

Natural-based coagulants/flocculants for microplastics and nanoplastics removal via coagulation–flocculation: a systematic review

This systematic review evaluates how natural plant-based materials can be used to remove microplastics and nanoplastics from water through coagulation and flocculation processes. The findings show that these sustainable, nature-derived alternatives can effectively capture plastic particles during water treatment, offering a greener approach to reducing microplastic contamination in our drinking water.

2026 International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology
Article Tier 2

A brief review on utilizing natural adsorbents for microplastic removal from wastewater: A sustainable approach to environmental protection

Researchers reviewed natural materials like biochar, clay, algae, and agricultural waste as affordable alternatives to synthetic filters for removing microplastics from wastewater, finding some achieved over 80% removal efficiency in the lab, though scaling these methods to real-world treatment systems remains a significant challenge.

2025 Results in Engineering 6 citations
Article Tier 2

Enhanced removal of microplastic fibres using aluminium and chitosan-based coagulants assisted with microbubble technology

Researchers tested the removal of microplastic fibers from water using aluminium-based and chitosan-based coagulants combined with sedimentation and microbubble flotation techniques. The aluminium coagulant achieved the highest removal rate of 88% through sedimentation in humic acid-containing water, while chitosan achieved 78% removal using microbubble flotation at a lower dosage. The findings suggest that the natural coagulant chitosan has potential as an effective and greener alternative for microplastic fiber removal in water treatment.

2025 Journal of environmental chemical engineering 8 citations
Article Tier 2

Chitosan: A Novel Approach and Sustainable Way to Remove Contaminants and Treat Wastewater

This review examines how chitosan, a natural material derived from crustacean shells, can be used to remove pollutants including microplastics, heavy metals, and pesticides from wastewater. Chitosan's chemical structure allows it to bind and capture a wide range of contaminants, and it can be combined with other materials to improve its effectiveness. Developing affordable, biodegradable water treatment materials like chitosan could help reduce human exposure to microplastics in drinking water.

2025 Starch - Stärke 7 citations
Article Tier 2

Utilization of chitosan as a natural coagulant for polyethylene microplastic removal

Scientists tested chitosan, a natural material derived from shellfish, as an eco-friendly way to remove polyethylene microplastics from water. Under the best conditions (pH 6.0 with 100 mg/L of chitosan), the treatment removed 81.5% of microplastics, offering a promising and environmentally safe approach to cleaning microplastic-contaminated water.

2025 Sustainable Chemistry for the Environment 12 citations
Systematic Review Tier 1

Utilizing nature-based adsorbents for removal of microplastics and nanoplastics in controlled polluted aqueous systems: A systematic review of sources, properties, adsorption characteristics, and performance

This systematic review evaluates how natural materials like agricultural waste and plant-based substances can be used to filter microplastics and nanoplastics from water. The research shows that these nature-based solutions offer a sustainable and effective approach to reducing plastic particle contamination in drinking water and wastewater systems.

2025 Next Sustainability 7 citations
Review Tier 2

Microplastic Removal in Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTPs) by Natural Coagulation: A Literature Review

This review examines how natural coagulants, substances derived from plants and other natural sources, can be used to remove microplastics during wastewater treatment. Natural coagulants are safer and cheaper than chemical alternatives, and show promise for capturing microplastic particles. Since wastewater treatment plants are a major source of microplastics entering waterways, better removal methods could reduce the amount of plastic pollution reaching the environment and eventually human food and water supplies.

2023 Toxics 45 citations
Article Tier 2

Optimisation of Chitosan as A Natural Flocculant for Microplastic Remediation

Laboratory tests found that chitosan — a natural, biodegradable material derived from shellfish — can remove 68.3% of microplastics from water using a coagulation-flocculation process, with an optimal concentration of 30 ppm. Higher chitosan doses increased organic matter in the water (COD and BOD), suggesting a trade-off between microplastic removal efficiency and water quality parameters. Chitosan offers a promising eco-friendly alternative to synthetic chemicals for treating microplastic-contaminated water.

2023 Journal of Emerging Science and Engineering 6 citations
Article Tier 2

Toward the review on sustainable elimination of microplastics: Materials, strategies, and advantages

This review evaluates sustainable approaches for removing microplastics using natural materials — including sponges, gels, enzymes, and microorganisms — comparing their mechanisms, efficiencies, and advantages over conventional chemical removal methods.

2025 Environmental Progress & Sustainable Energy
Article Tier 2

Synergistic removal of microplastic fibres: Integrating Chitosan coagulation in hybrid water pre-treatment systems

Microplastic fibers are the most common type of microplastic found entering water treatment plants, yet their elongated shape makes them especially hard to remove with conventional filters. This study investigated using chitosan — a natural, biodegradable material derived from crustacean shells — as a "green" coagulant to clump fibers together so they can be more easily removed, and also developed chemically modified versions of chitosan that work across a wider range of water conditions. The results showed that combining chitosan-based coagulation with microbubble aeration creates a synergistic pretreatment system that significantly improves microplastic fiber removal while avoiding the residual metal ions left by conventional chemical coagulants.

2026 Australasian Journal of Paramedicine
Article Tier 2

Interactions Between Microplastics and Marine-Derived Polysaccharides: Binding Mechanisms and Bioavailability in Aquatic Systems

This review examines how natural marine polysaccharides like alginate, chitosan, and carrageenan interact with microplastics in aquatic environments through forces such as electrostatic attraction and physical trapping. Researchers found that these biopolymers can influence how microplastics move, clump together, and become available to organisms in the food web. The study suggests that modified marine polysaccharides could potentially be used in environmentally sustainable approaches to microplastic remediation.

2025 Toxics 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Synergistic removal of microplastic fibres using hybrid pre-treatment: evaluation of Chitosan as a green coagulant

Researchers evaluated the capacity of existing water treatment pre-treatment methods to remove microplastic fibers and investigated chitosan — a low-molecular-weight, 75-85% deacetylated green coagulant — as an alternative to conventional chemical coagulants. The study assessed a hybrid pre-treatment approach, finding synergistic microplastic fiber removal efficiency when chitosan was combined with existing processes.

2024 Water e-Journal
Article Tier 2

Sustainable biomaterials based on cellulose, chitin and chitosan composites - A review

Researchers reviewed advances in making sustainable composite materials from cellulose, chitin, and chitosan — abundant natural polymers found in plants and shellfish — as biodegradable alternatives to synthetic plastics that contribute to microplastic pollution. The review covers how these biopolymers can be dissolved and combined into fibers, films, and gels for a wide range of environmentally friendly applications.

2021 Carbohydrate Polymer Technologies and Applications 117 citations
Article Tier 2

Sustainable coagulative removal of microplastic from aquatic systems: recent progress and outlook

This review examines how natural coagulants from plants, animals, and microbes can be used to remove microplastics from water as a greener alternative to conventional chemical treatments. These bio-based coagulants, especially when combined with nanotechnology, show promising removal rates while avoiding the toxic residues left by traditional chemical approaches.

2025 RSC Advances 20 citations
Article Tier 2

The use of chitosan for water purification from microplastics

Researchers investigated chitosan as a sorbent for removing microplastics from water, analyzing its physicochemical properties and proposing an optimized purification method based on chitosan's sorption characteristics.

2025 Open MIND
Article Tier 2

Bio-Based Polymeric Flocculants and Adsorbents for Wastewater Treatment

This review explores how materials derived from natural biological sources, such as plant-based polymers, can be used as flocculants and adsorbents to remove contaminants from wastewater. Researchers found that these bio-based materials offer advantages including biodegradability, low cost, and effectiveness in trapping pollutants through both clumping and surface binding mechanisms. The study suggests that bio-based polymeric materials are a promising sustainable alternative to synthetic chemicals currently used in water treatment.

2023 Sustainability 60 citations