Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Co-occurrence and Interaction of Microplastics with Heavy Metals

This review examines the co-occurrence of microplastics and heavy metals in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, synthesizing evidence on how MPs adsorb metals, alter their bioavailability, and facilitate their transfer up food chains, compounding toxicological risks beyond either pollutant alone.

2025
Article Tier 2

Microplastics exacerbate heavy metal pollution stress in the surface water of a mining city: Occurrence, drivers, and vector effects

Researchers studied the co-occurrence of microplastics and heavy metals in surface water of a coal mining city and found that microplastics act as vectors that exacerbate heavy metal transport and pollution. The study identified key drivers of combined contamination from mining activities, farmland reclamation, and urban runoff. The findings suggest that microplastics in mining regions amplify the environmental risks of heavy metal pollution by carrying and concentrating toxic metals.

2026 Journal of environmental chemical engineering
Article Tier 2

Synergistic Impacts of Microplastics and Heavy Metals in Aquatic Environments and Strategies for Mitigation

This review examines the combined pollution of aquatic habitats by heavy metals and microplastics, covering their widespread distribution from polar regions to deep-sea sediments and the ecological risks of their interaction. The authors discuss adsorption of heavy metals onto microplastic surfaces, combined toxicity to aquatic organisms, and mitigation strategies for managing this dual contamination in water bodies.

2024 Journal of Indian Fisheries Association
Article Tier 2

Interactions of microplastics with heavy metals in the aquatic environment: Mechanisms and mitigation

This review synthesized mechanisms of heavy metal adsorption onto microplastics in aquatic environments and evaluated strategies for removing both contaminants simultaneously. The authors found that temperature, salinity, and plastic surface aging govern metal binding, and identified hybrid adsorbent materials as the most promising approach for co-removal of metals and microplastics from water.

2025 Journal of Hazardous Materials Advances
Article Tier 2

The Unseen Threat of the Synergistic Effects of Microplastics and Heavy Metals in Aquatic Environments: A Critical Review

This review examines how microplastics and heavy metals interact in water environments, finding that microplastics can attract and concentrate toxic metals on their surfaces through various chemical forces. This combination effect is a concern for human health because contaminated microplastics carrying heavy metals can be consumed through seafood, delivering a double dose of pollutants.

2024 Current Pollution Reports 81 citations
Article Tier 2

[Research Progress on Trojan-horse Effect of Microplastics and Heavy Metals in Freshwater Environment].

This review examines the Trojan-horse effect in freshwater environments where microplastics adsorb and transport heavy metals, significantly increasing their potential ecological harm due to the large surface area and persistence of microplastic particles.

2023 PubMed 6 citations
Article Tier 2

Understanding the Adsorption Behavior of Heavy Metals onto the MPs and Their Impact

This review examines how microplastics adsorb heavy metals from soil and aquatic environments and how this adsorption affects the transport, bioavailability, and toxicity of both contaminants. The authors synthesize evidence showing that microplastics act as effective carriers for heavy metal transport through freshwater and marine systems, amplifying the ecological hazard of metal contamination.

2024 ACS symposium series 6 citations
Review Tier 2

Microplastics and potentially toxic elements: A review of interactions, fate and bioavailability in the environment

This review summarizes how microplastics interact with toxic metals in the environment, finding that microplastics absorb and transport metals through soil and water via processes like electrostatic attraction and surface bonding. When organisms consume microplastics carrying toxic metals, they can experience greater harm than from either pollutant alone. This combined threat is relevant to human health because contaminated microplastics in the food chain could deliver concentrated doses of toxic metals to people through food and water.

2023 Environmental Pollution 33 citations
Article Tier 2

Interaction of microplastics with metal(oid)s in aquatic environments: What is done so far?

This review assembled the mechanisms by which microplastics sorb hazardous metals and metalloids in aquatic environments, examining how weathering, biofilm formation, and environmental conditions influence the transport and bioavailability of these contaminants.

2022 Journal of Hazardous Materials Advances 36 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics as Vectors for Metals from Mines and Fuels: Environmental Pathways and Implications

This review examines the environmental pathways by which microplastics act as vectors for metals from mines and fuels, synthesising evidence on contaminant sorption, transport, bioaccumulation, and toxicological implications of metal-microplastic interactions.

2024 Journal of Mines Metals and Fuels 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Influence of Microplastics on Microbial Structure, Function, and Mechanical Properties of Stream Periphyton

This review explores how microplastics interact with heavy metals in aquatic environments, acting as vectors that can adsorb and transport toxic metals through ecosystems. The combined toxicity of microplastic-metal complexes poses greater risks to aquatic organisms than either contaminant alone.

2022 Frontiers in Environmental Science 11 citations
Systematic Review Tier 1

Interaction of Microplastics and Heavy Metals on Aquatic Organisms : A Review

This systematic review examines how microplastics interact with heavy metals in waterways, finding that plastic particles absorb toxic metals and then release them inside organisms that ingest them. This combination increases the toxicity of both pollutants, leading to DNA damage, tissue changes, and reproductive problems in aquatic life, with potential consequences for human health through the food chain.

2025 Environmental and Agriculture Management 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Interactions Between Microplastics and Heavy Metals in Aquatic Environments: A Review

This review examines how microplastics interact with heavy metals in water, with a particular focus on the role that microorganisms play in driving these interactions. Bacteria that colonize microplastic surfaces can change how metals bind to and release from the particles, potentially increasing their toxicity. The combined threat of microplastics and heavy metals to aquatic ecosystems and human health through seafood consumption is a growing concern that needs more research.

2021 Frontiers in Microbiology 271 citations
Article Tier 2

A Mini-Review On The Microplastic-Heavy Metal Interactions And The Factors Affecting Their Fate In Aquatic Habitats

This mini-review examines how microplastics interact with heavy metals in aquatic environments, serving as vectors that can transport toxic pollutants. Researchers describe how factors like polymer type, surface area, water pH, and salinity influence the adsorption of heavy metals onto microplastic surfaces, potentially increasing their bioavailability to aquatic organisms.

2024 Communications Faculty of Science University of Ankara Series C Biology Geological Engineering and Geophysical Engineering 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Micro-nanoplastics and metals : Development of material models and sorption properties in natural environments

This dissertation examines how micro- and nanoplastics interact with heavy metals in natural environments, developing material models to understand their sorption properties. Since plastics can act as carriers for toxic metals — concentrating and transporting them through ecosystems — the research has important implications for understanding combined pollution risks.

2023 theses.fr (ABES)
Article Tier 2

Environmental behavior of microplastic - heavy metal synergistic contamination in a typical urban-rural river network

Researchers investigated the seasonal co-occurrence of microplastics and heavy metals in urban and rural rivers in a Chinese inland city. They found that both pollutant types were present in all water samples and that microplastics can adsorb heavy metals, potentially increasing the combined environmental risk. The study reveals that river networks connecting urban and rural areas serve as pathways for spreading this dual contamination.

2025 Emerging contaminants 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic-mediated environmental behavior of metal contaminants: mechanism and implication

This review examines how microplastics interact with heavy metals across water, soil, and air environments, acting as carriers that concentrate and transport toxic metals. Researchers found that microplastics can increase the bioavailability and toxicity of metal contaminants to living organisms. The study highlights major gaps in current analytical methods and calls for better tools to understand these complex pollutant interactions.

2024 Environmental Science and Pollution Research 8 citations
Review Tier 2

Microplastic-Toxic Chemical Interaction: A Review Study on Quantified Levels, Mechanism and Implication

This review summarizes quantified levels of heavy metals and hydrophobic organic contaminants sorbed onto microplastics in environmental media, examining adsorption and desorption mechanisms and discussing health implications of ingested microplastics acting as vectors for toxic chemical transport.

2019 Preprints.org 21 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics as a vehicle of heavy metals in aquatic environments: A review of adsorption factors, mechanisms, and biological effects

This review summarizes how microplastics in water can absorb and carry toxic heavy metals like lead and cadmium, making them more dangerous to aquatic life than either pollutant alone. Environmental factors such as water acidity, salinity, and organic matter influence how much metal sticks to microplastic surfaces. Since contaminated seafood is a major source of human exposure, understanding these interactions is important for assessing health risks.

2021 Journal of Environmental Management 385 citations
Article Tier 2

Integrative Evaluation of the Ecological Hazards by Microplastics and Heavy Metals in Wetland Ecosystem

Researchers conducted an integrative ecological hazard assessment of microplastics combined with heavy metals, evaluating their combined toxicity to aquatic organisms. The study found that co-contamination with heavy metals and microplastics poses greater ecological risk than either pollutant alone.

2023 Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 11 citations
Article Tier 2

Interaction of Environmental Pollutants with Microplastics: A Critical Review of Sorption Factors, Bioaccumulation and Ecotoxicological Effects

This critical review examines how microplastics interact with and enhance the toxicity of co-occurring environmental pollutants including heavy metals, persistent organic compounds, and pharmaceuticals, synthesizing evidence on sorption mechanisms and combined ecotoxicological effects.

2020 Toxics 313 citations
Article Tier 2

Interaction of plastic particles with heavy metals and the resulting toxicological impacts: a review

Researchers reviewed how micro- and nanoplastics interact with heavy metals in the environment, identifying electrostatic attraction and pore-filling as the dominant adsorption mechanisms, and finding that factors including pH, salinity, biofilm formation, and particle size collectively determine whether combined exposure produces synergistic toxicity in animals or antagonistic effects in plants.

2021 Environmental Science and Pollution Research 69 citations
Article Tier 2

A critical review on the interactions of microplastics with heavy metals: Mechanism and their combined effect on organisms and humans

This review examines how microplastics interact with heavy metals in the environment and what their combined effects mean for organisms and human health. Microplastics absorb heavy metals from surrounding water and soil, and when ingested, the acidic conditions in the gut can cause those metals to be released inside the body. The combination of microplastics and heavy metals may be more toxic than either pollutant alone, creating a compounded health risk.

2021 The Science of The Total Environment 545 citations
Review Tier 2

Global hotspots and trends in interactions of microplastics and heavy metals: a bibliometric analysis and literature review

This bibliometric review analyzed over 550 published studies on how microplastics interact with heavy metals in the environment. The research shows that microplastics can absorb heavy metals from surrounding water and soil, concentrating these toxic substances and carrying them into living organisms. This combined contamination is a growing concern for human health because microplastics may deliver concentrated doses of heavy metals into the body through food and water.

2023 Environmental Science and Pollution Research 32 citations