Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Recent Progress on Solar‐Driven Interfacial Evaporation for Resource Recovery and Pollutant Removal

This review covers recent advances in solar-powered water purification systems that can recover resources and remove pollutants from water. While the technology is primarily designed for desalination and heavy metal removal, it has potential applications for filtering microplastics from water. These sustainable, energy-efficient systems could become an important tool for reducing microplastic contamination in drinking water supplies worldwide.

2025 Advanced Materials 24 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic detection and remediation through efficient interfacial solar evaporation for immaculate water production

Researchers developed a solar-powered water purification system that simultaneously produces clean water and removes microplastics, achieving up to 5.5 times better microplastic removal than previous methods. The system uses sunlight to evaporate water, leaving contaminants including microplastics behind. This dual-purpose technology could help address both water scarcity and microplastic pollution, ultimately reducing human exposure through drinking water.

2024 Nature Communications 92 citations
Article Tier 2

Review on the Application of Novel Materials for Microplastics and Nanoplastics Removal in Drinking Water Treatment Systems

Researchers reviewed four categories of emerging materials — plant-derived adsorbents, advanced membranes, solar-powered photothermal systems, and electrochemical technologies — for removing microplastics and nanoplastics from drinking water. Each approach has trade-offs in cost, efficiency, and scalability, and the authors conclude that future solutions will likely require combining multiple technologies into hybrid systems.

2025 Research Review 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Concave microlens arrays with tunable curvature for enhanced photodegradation of organic pollutants in water: A non‐contact approach

Researchers designed reusable concave microlens arrays (MLAs) that focus sunlight to boost solar photodegradation of organic pollutants in water by 5.1-fold, even under low light and in turbid river water. This is not directly about microplastics; it is a water treatment technology study targeting dissolved organic pollutants, making it a false positive for microplastic relevance.

2023 EcoMat 12 citations
Article Tier 2

Dual-Functional Evaporator: Synergistic Seawater Purification via Photothermal Evaporation and Microplastic Adsorption

A novel solar-powered device tackles two pressing problems at once: freshwater scarcity and microplastic contamination in water. The evaporator uses sunlight to generate steam for desalination while a specially coated fiber layer adsorbs microplastics from the water before it evaporates — achieving 99.2% microplastic removal efficiency and a strong evaporation rate. Because the steam produced contains no microplastics, the design elegantly separates clean water production from plastic capture in a single low-energy system.

2025 ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Photodegradation of Microplastics through Nanomaterials: Insights into Photocatalysts Modification and Detailed Mechanisms

This review examines how specially designed nanomaterials can break down microplastics in water using light-driven chemical reactions. While not directly about human health, improving microplastic removal from water sources could reduce the amount of tiny plastic particles that ultimately end up in drinking water and the food chain.

2024 Materials 28 citations
Article Tier 2

A biomass-derived, all-day-round solar evaporation platform for harvesting clean water from microplastic pollution

A three-dimensional biomass-derived photothermal platform with gradient microchannels was developed to accelerate solar-driven water evaporation and simultaneously degrade microplastics. The system achieved all-day-round evaporation by combining solar energy harvesting with photocatalytic microplastic breakdown.

2021 Journal of Materials Chemistry A 75 citations
Article Tier 2

Photocatalytic Degradation of Microplastics in Aquatic Environments: Materials, Mechanisms, Practical Challenges, and Future Perspectives

This review examines how light-activated materials called photocatalysts can break down microplastics in water into harmless byproducts using sunlight or UV light. While still facing challenges with incomplete breakdown and variable sunlight conditions, this technology offers a promising way to reduce microplastic contamination in water sources that affect human health.

2025 Water 17 citations
Article Tier 2

Recent Advances in Microplastics Removal from Water with Special Attention Given to Photocatalytic Degradation: Review of Scientific Research

This review examines methods for removing microplastics from water, with a focus on photocatalytic degradation, which uses light-activated materials to break down plastic particles. These advanced processes generate reactive molecules that can fragment microplastics into harmless byproducts. While promising, the technology still needs optimization and more research into potential harmful byproducts before it can be widely deployed.

2023 Microplastics 87 citations
Article Tier 2

Analysis of Renewable Energy Utilization Using Solar Power Technology in Eliminating Microplastic Emissions

Researchers investigated solar power-driven microbubble technology as a method for removing microplastics from water, conducting a literature review to evaluate the feasibility of using sunlight and microbubbles to continuously collect and remove plastic particles without chemical or biological reagents or filters. They found that solar-powered microbubble generation offers a promising reagent-free approach to microplastic removal, with solar energy addressing both treatment efficacy and the energy demands of the remediation process.

2022 12 citations
Article Tier 2

Photocatalysis toward Microplastics Conversion: A Critical Review

This review summarizes how photocatalysis, a process that uses sunlight and special materials to trigger chemical reactions, could potentially break down microplastics in water. While the technology is still in its early stages, it offers a promising approach to degrading the microplastics that have been detected in human blood, breast milk, and organs.

2024 ACS Catalysis 95 citations
Article Tier 2

The “Pudding Effect” to Promote Solar‐Driving Water Purification

This paper is not about microplastic pollution. It describes a solar-powered hydrogel system for desalinating brackish water, using a conducting polymer combined with a thermosensitive polymer to achieve high evaporation rates. While it mentions poly(styrene sodium sulfonate), the study is focused on water purification technology, not plastic contamination.

2023 Advanced Functional Materials 21 citations
Article Tier 2

Assessing the Sustainability of Photodegradation and Photocatalysis for Wastewater Reuse in an Agricultural Resilience Context

Not directly relevant to microplastics — this review evaluates photodegradation and photocatalysis technologies for purifying wastewater for agricultural reuse, without a focus on microplastic removal.

2023 Water 14 citations
Article Tier 2

Layered Double Hydroxide-Based Photocatalysts for the Removal of Emerging Contaminants: Progress in Past Ten Years

This review summarizes a decade of research on layered double hydroxides -- specialized materials used as photocatalysts that harness light energy to break down pollutants in water, including microplastics and other emerging contaminants. These materials show promise for cleaning contaminated water because they can be tuned to target specific pollutants and activated by sunlight, offering a potential low-cost approach to reducing microplastic pollution in water supplies.

2024 Catalysts 20 citations
Article Tier 2

Nanomaterials for microplastic remediation from aquatic environment: Why nano matters?

This review examines how nanomaterials such as photocatalysts, adsorbents, and membrane filters can be used to remove microplastics from aquatic environments, highlighting why nanoscale properties offer advantages over conventional remediation approaches.

2022 Chemosphere 113 citations
Article Tier 2

Science and Technology for Water Purification: Achievements and Strategies

This review covers the latest science and technology for purifying water, addressing the global challenges of water scarcity and pollution. It discusses emerging contaminants including microplastics and the treatment methods needed to remove them. The findings are relevant to human health because current water treatment systems may not fully remove microplastics and other new pollutants from drinking water.

2025 Water 8 citations
Article Tier 2

Integration of photothermal water evaporation with photocatalytic microplastics upcycling via nanofluidic thermal management

Researchers designed a nanofiber reactor that simultaneously purifies water through solar-powered evaporation and breaks down microplastics using photocatalysis. The study achieved a high evaporation rate while converting microplastic pollutants into useful chemical products, demonstrating how both processes can work together in a single device by managing heat at the nanoscale.

2024 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 27 citations
Article Tier 2

Photocatalytic and biological technologies for elimination of microplastics in water: Current status

This review examines emerging photocatalytic and biological technologies for breaking down microplastics in water, since conventional treatment facilities can capture but not fully destroy these particles. Researchers found that while photocatalysis and microbial degradation show promise, their effectiveness varies widely and the underlying mechanisms are only partly understood. The study highlights the urgent need for more efficient solutions to eliminate rather than simply filter out microplastic pollution from water supplies.

2021 The Science of The Total Environment 137 citations
Article Tier 2

Nanomaterials for microplastics remediation in wastewater: A viable step towards cleaner water

This review examines how nanomaterials, tiny engineered particles with high surface area and reactivity, can be used to remove microplastics from water more effectively than traditional methods like filtration and sedimentation. While promising, these technologies face challenges including high production costs, potential toxicity of the nanomaterials themselves, and difficulty scaling up from lab to real-world applications. Improving these methods is important because current water treatment often fails to remove the smallest and most harmful microplastic particles.

2025 Journal of Hazardous Materials Advances 6 citations
Article Tier 2

A review of nanomaterials with excellent purification potential for the removal of micro- and nanoplastics from liquid

This review summarizes how specialized nanomaterials can be used to remove microplastics and nanoplastics from water, working as tiny filters, chemical catalysts, or absorbent surfaces. Traditional water treatment methods struggle with these very small plastic particles, but engineered nanomaterials show promise for capturing them more effectively. The authors also emphasize the importance of reducing plastic pollution at its source alongside developing better cleanup technologies.

2024 DeCarbon 21 citations
Article Tier 2

Advancing photocatalytic strategies for microplastic degradation in aquatic systems: Insights into key challenges and future pathways

This review examines how light-activated chemical reactions (photocatalysis) can break down microplastics in water, using advanced materials like doped semiconductors and metal-organic frameworks. While promising for cleaning up waterways, challenges remain around scaling these methods for real-world use and ensuring the breakdown products are not themselves harmful.

2025 Journal of environmental chemical engineering 29 citations
Article Tier 2

Hierarchical MXene Hydrogel Evaporators with Self‐Regulating Water‐Thermal Management for High‐Efficiency Removal of Multipollutants via Solar‐Energy Utilization

Engineers designed a solar-powered water purification device using MXene nanomaterials that can remove up to 99% of microplastics from water while also filtering out heavy metals and killing bacteria. The device converts sunlight into heat to evaporate and purify contaminated water, and it remains effective even after exposure to extreme cold and UV aging. This technology could provide a low-cost way to produce clean drinking water in areas affected by microplastic pollution.

2025 Small 5 citations
Article Tier 2

Recent Advances in Photocatalytic Removal of Microplastics: Mechanisms, Kinetic Degradation, and Reactor Design

This review examines how photocatalytic processes, which use light-activated materials to generate reactive molecules, can be used to break down microplastics in water. Researchers surveyed the mechanisms behind photocatalytic degradation of common plastics like polyethylene and polystyrene, as well as reactor designs that could make the technology practical. The study highlights photocatalysis as a promising approach for tackling microplastic pollution but notes that scaling up these systems remains a major challenge.

2022 Frontiers in Marine Science 89 citations
Article Tier 2

Removal of nanoplastics in water treatment processes: A review

This review examines technologies for removing nanoplastics from water, noting that conventional treatment processes effective for larger plastics often fail to capture these tiny particles. Researchers evaluated emerging methods including microbial degradation, membrane filtration, and photocatalysis, finding that combined approaches offer the best removal rates. The study highlights that more research is needed to develop practical, large-scale solutions for nanoplastic contamination in drinking water and wastewater.

2022 The Science of The Total Environment 146 citations