Papers

20 results
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Article Tier 2

Nanoplastics removal during drinking water treatment: Laboratory- and pilot-scale experiments and modeling

Researchers used palladium-labeled nanoplastics to track removal through conventional drinking water treatment including ozonation and filtration, finding that biofilm-coated aged sand provided the best nanoplastic retention. Modeling predicted that a combination of three consecutive filtration steps could achieve removal exceeding 3-log units, with slow sand filtration contributing the most to overall nanoplastic removal.

2022 Journal of Hazardous Materials 77 citations
Article Tier 2

Understanding and Improving Microplastic Removal during Water Treatment: Impact of Coagulation and Flocculation

Researchers systematically tested coagulation and flocculation for removing microplastics from drinking water, finding that removal efficiency depended strongly on plastic particle size and whether particles had been weathered, with smaller pristine particles being the hardest to remove.

2020 Environmental Science & Technology 424 citations
Article Tier 2

The role of abiotic and biotic aging in the elimination of polyethylene microplastics by coagulation

This study investigated how the natural weathering and biological aging of polyethylene microplastics — through sunlight, temperature, mechanical wear, and bacterial biofilm formation — affects how well water treatment plants can remove them using a coagulation process. Biologically aged plastics coated with bacterial biofilm were removed most efficiently, reaching up to 67% removal compared to around 30% for fresh plastics. Understanding how aging changes microplastic behavior in treatment plants is important for improving removal strategies, since most real-world plastics entering water systems have already been weathered.

2026 The Science of The Total Environment
Article Tier 2

Treatment processes for microplastics and nanoplastics in waters: State-of-the-art review

This review summarized established and emerging treatment processes for removing microplastics and nanoplastics from drinking water and wastewater, evaluating coagulation, membrane filtration, advanced oxidation, and biological treatment in terms of removal efficiency and operational feasibility.

2021 Marine Pollution Bulletin 102 citations
Article Tier 2

Nanoplastics in aquatic environments: The hidden impact of aging on fate and toxicity

This review highlights that most toxicity studies on nanoplastics use brand-new pristine particles, but real-world nanoplastics are aged by sunlight and chemical exposure, which fundamentally changes their surface properties and toxicity. Aged nanoplastics may be more harmful than pristine ones because they interact differently with biological systems, meaning current safety assessments likely underestimate the true risks.

2025 Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology 22 citations
Article Tier 2

Effects of different oxidants on the behaviour of microplastic hetero-aggregates

Researchers studied how different oxidants (ozone, chlorine, UV) affect the aggregation and settling behavior of microplastics in water treatment, finding that oxidation altered surface chemistry and changed hetero-aggregate formation with natural particles. The results have implications for predicting microplastic removal efficiency in drinking water and wastewater treatment plants.

2024 Journal of Hazardous Materials 6 citations
Review Tier 2

Removal of microplastics and nanoplastics in water treatment processes: A systematic literature review

Researchers systematically reviewed 103 studies across 26 water treatment plants in 12 countries to assess how well various technologies remove microplastics and nanoplastics from drinking water, finding that while coagulation, filtration, and advanced treatments help, significant gaps remain. The review identifies that no single process achieves complete removal, leaving microplastics as a persistent contaminant in treated water supplies.

2024 Journal of Water Process Engineering 34 citations
Article Tier 2

Removal efficiency of micro- and nanoplastics (180 nm–125 μm) during drinking water treatment

Researchers tested how effectively standard drinking water treatment processes remove micro- and nanoplastics ranging from 180 nanometers to 125 micrometers. They found that coagulation and sedimentation alone removed less than 2% of plastic particles, while granular filtration was far more effective, achieving 87% to nearly 100% removal depending on particle size. The study also found that biofilm formation on microplastics significantly improved their removal during coagulation treatment.

2020 The Science of The Total Environment 268 citations
Article Tier 2

Removal of nanoparticles (both inorganic nanoparticles and nanoplastics) in drinking water treatment – coagulation/flocculation/sedimentation, and sand/granular activated carbon filtration

Researchers reviewed the removal of inorganic nanoparticles and nanoplastics during conventional drinking water treatment, finding that coagulation/flocculation/sedimentation and sand/granular activated carbon filtration can substantially reduce nanoparticle concentrations but with variable efficiency depending on particle type.

2022 Environmental Science Water Research & Technology 34 citations
Article Tier 2

Effect of surface functional groups of polystyrene micro/nano plastics on the release of NOM from flocs during the aging process

Researchers studied how polystyrene micro- and nanoparticles with different surface functional groups affect the release of natural organic matter from coagulation flocs during aging. They found that smaller nanoparticles had a greater impact on natural organic matter release than larger microplastics. The study highlights a hidden risk in water treatment, where microplastics in the coagulation process could compromise the effectiveness of removing organic contaminants from drinking water.

2024 Journal of Hazardous Materials 18 citations
Review Tier 2

Review of Advanced Water Treatment for Removal of Nanoplastic Pollution

This review evaluates drinking water treatment technologies for removing nanoplastics, finding that combined coagulation, flocculation, and filtration achieves up to 99.9% removal efficiency. As nanoplastics are detected in drinking water globally and cannot be degraded in the environment or human body, identifying effective removal processes is directly relevant to protecting public health.

2023 CIVED 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Micro- and nanoplastics removal from water and solid matrices: Technologies, challenges, and future perspectives

Researchers reviewed a decade of research on micro- and nanoplastic removal technologies across water and solid matrices, finding that conventional water treatment achieves over 80% microplastic removal but transfers most particles to sludge rather than degrading them, while advanced oxidation processes show strong degradation potential under controlled but not yet real-world conditions.

2026 Environmental Research
Article Tier 2

Coagulation of TiO2, CeO2 nanoparticles, and polystyrene nanoplastics in bottled mineral and surface waters. Effect of water properties, coagulant type, and dosage

Polyaluminum chloride was more effective than iron chloride at coagulating TiO2, CeO2 nanoparticles, and polystyrene nanoplastics in drinking water sources, requiring lower doses to achieve particle removal. Nanoplastics were harder to coagulate than metal oxide nanoparticles, indicating that current water treatment practices may inadequately remove plastic nanoparticles from drinking water.

2020 Water Environment Research 44 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
Article Tier 2

Differences in removal rates of virgin/decayed microplastics, viruses, activated carbon, and kaolin/montmorillonite clay particles by coagulation, flocculation, sedimentation, and rapid sand filtration during water treatment

This study compared removal of virgin and degraded microplastics, viruses, activated carbon, and clay particles by coagulation, flocculation, sedimentation, and sand filtration in drinking water treatment, finding that removal efficiency varied substantially by particle type and that aged microplastics were harder to remove than virgin ones due to surface charge differences.

2021 Water Research 63 citations
Article Tier 2

Aggregation kinetics of UV irradiated nanoplastics in aquatic environments

Researchers compared the aggregation behavior of fresh versus UV-aged polystyrene nanoplastics under various aquatic conditions. They found that UV aging altered the surface chemistry of nanoplastics, making them more stable in water and less likely to aggregate, which means they could remain suspended and bioavailable for longer periods. The study suggests that weathered nanoplastics may behave very differently from fresh particles in the environment, complicating risk assessments.

2019 Water Research 214 citations
Article Tier 2

Natural Organic Matter Stabilizes Pristine Nanoplastics but Destabilizes Photochemical Weathered Nanoplastics in Monovalent Electrolyte Solutions

This study examined how sunlight weathering and natural organic matter coatings change the behavior of nanoplastics in water. Researchers found that organic matter stabilizes fresh nanoplastics but actually destabilizes sun-weathered ones, meaning aged nanoplastics in natural waters may clump together and settle differently than expected, affecting where they end up in aquatic environments.

2025 Environmental Science & Technology 14 citations
Article Tier 2

Pre-oxidization-induced change of physicochemical characteristics and removal behaviours in conventional drinking water treatment processes for polyethylene microplastics

Researchers investigated how pre-oxidation treatments alter the physicochemical properties of polyethylene microplastics and found that oxidation changed surface characteristics and influenced removal efficiency during conventional drinking water treatment processes.

2020 RSC Advances 23 citations
Article Tier 2

Recent innovations in microplastics and nanoplastics removal by coagulation technique: Implementations, knowledge gaps and prospects

This review evaluates coagulation, a water treatment technique that uses chemicals to clump particles together for easier removal, as a method for eliminating microplastics and nanoplastics from water. Researchers found that coagulation can effectively remove these plastic particles, especially when combined with other treatment steps, but performance varies based on plastic size, shape, and water chemistry. The study identifies key knowledge gaps and recommends further research to optimize coagulation for real-world microplastic removal.

2023 Water Research 71 citations
Article Tier 2

Effect of ozonation on the morphological characteristics and adsorption behavior of polystyrene microplastics in aqueous environments

Researchers exposed polystyrene microplastics to ozone treatment and found that the aging process made the particles smaller, more negatively charged, and better at absorbing pollutants from water — meaning weathered microplastics in the environment may carry more harmful chemicals than fresh ones.

2025 Applied Water Science 11 citations