Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Wettability of microplastic particles affects their water-to-air ejection via bubble bursting.

Researchers experimentally investigated how the wettability (hydrophilicity or hydrophobicity) of microplastic particles affects their enrichment into jet droplets ejected when bubbles burst at the ocean surface, providing new insight into the mechanisms by which microplastics are transferred across the air-sea interface and potentially aerosolized.

2024 Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Article Tier 2

Effect of wettability on microplastic aerosolization via film and jet drops ejected from bursting bubbles

Researchers experimentally investigated how wettability of microplastic particles affects their aerosolization via film drops and jet drops ejected from bursting bubbles at the ocean surface. They found that particle wettability significantly controls the probability of microplastic inclusion in ejected droplets, with implications for understanding how microplastics transfer from the ocean surface into the atmosphere.

2025 Environmental Science Processes & Impacts
Article Tier 2

Water–air transfer rates of microplastic particles through bubble bursting as a function of particle size

Researchers studied how microplastic particles transfer from water to air through bubble bursting, testing polystyrene particles of various sizes. The study found that smaller particles were ejected more efficiently by jet drops, with transfer rates depending on particle size and air flow, suggesting that bubble bursting at water surfaces may be an important but underrecognized pathway for microplastic transport into the atmosphere.

2024 Microplastics and Nanoplastics 13 citations
Article Tier 2

Nanoscale insight into the interaction mechanism underlying the transport of microplastics by bubbles in aqueous environment

Nanoscale experiments revealed that bubble capture of microplastics in water is governed by hydrophobic interactions and surface charge complementarity between bubbles and MP particles. Understanding these mechanisms is critical for modeling the role of bubbles in transporting MPs from water to air-water interfaces and across environmental compartments.

2024 Journal of Colloid and Interface Science 9 citations
Article Tier 2

Bubble-mediated generation of airborne nanoplastic particles

Laboratory experiments examined nanoplastic particle emission into air through bubble bursting from low-salinity waters, testing 103, 147, and 269 nm polystyrene spheres. Results quantified the efficiency of water-to-air transfer of nanoplastics via bubble-bursting, suggesting this mechanism is a significant but poorly quantified source of airborne nanoplastics near water surfaces.

2024 Environmental Science Processes & Impacts 6 citations
Article Tier 2

Experimental evidence of plastic particles transfer at the water-air interface through bubble bursting

Experimental evidence showed that bubble bursting at the sea surface can transfer plastic particles from bulk water to sea spray aerosols, providing a mechanism for microplastics to be transported from ocean surface waters into the atmosphere.

2021 Environmental Pollution 66 citations
Article Tier 2

Understanding microplastic flotation through microbubble-microplastic interactions

Researchers studied how microbubbles attach to polyethylene and polystyrene microplastics across a range of salt concentrations to understand flotation-based removal. Polyethylene showed consistently higher bubble attachment than polystyrene due to stronger hydrophobic interactions, and adhesion force analysis confirmed PE's greater tendency for bubble-mediated flotation.

2025 Surfaces and Interfaces 3 citations
Article Tier 2

AQuantitative Relationshipbetween Settling and Wettabilityfor Weathered Microplastics in Aquatic Systems

Researchers quantified the relationship between surface wettability and settling velocity for weathered microplastics in aquatic systems, demonstrating that wettability-driven microscale changes at the particle-water interface modify drag forces and thus govern the transport and fate of submillimeter plastic particles.

2025 Figshare
Article Tier 2

Emerging investigator series: suspended air nanobubbles in water can shuttle polystyrene nanoplastics to the air–water interface

Nanobubbles suspended in water can physically carry nanoplastic particles to the air-water interface and concentrate them there, but only when the repulsive electrical charge between the particles and bubbles is reduced by adjusting pH. This discovery points toward a potential low-energy method for removing nanoplastics from water, which is currently one of the hardest fractions of plastic pollution to filter out.

2024 Environmental Science Nano 3 citations
Article Tier 2

The rise and rupture of bubbles: applications to biofouling, microplastic pollution, and sea spray aerosols

Researchers studied how rising air bubbles in water collect microplastics and bacteria on their surfaces and transport them to the liquid surface, and how bubble bursting then launches these particles into the air as sea spray — with implications for both aquatic contamination and airborne microplastic exposure.

2023 OpenBU (Boston University)
Article Tier 2

New insights into the role of marine plastic-gels in microplastic transfer from water to the atmosphere via bubble bursting

Researchers identified a three-step mechanism by which microplastics are transferred from ocean surface water to the atmosphere during bubble bursting, finding that marine gel particles play a critical role by concentrating MPs at the air-sea interface before aerosol ejection. The results help explain how MPs reach remote terrestrial environments through atmospheric deposition from the ocean.

2022 Water Research 52 citations
Article Tier 2

Manuscript Dataset

Researchers compiled the supporting dataset for a study examining how surface wettability influences the aerosolization of microplastics via film and jet droplets ejected from bursting bubbles, providing the underlying data for figures describing aerosolization dynamics.

2025 Figshare
Article Tier 2

AQuantitative Relationshipbetween Settling and Wettabilityfor Weathered Microplastics in Aquatic Systems

Researchers quantified the relationship between surface wettability and settling velocity for weathered microplastics in aquatic systems, demonstrating that wettability-driven changes at the particle-water interface alter drag forces and thus residence time and distribution in the water column.

2025 Figshare
Article Tier 2

Cation–π Interaction and Salinity Regulate the Bubble-Mediated Transport of Microplastics in the Presence of Aromatic Dissolved Organic Matter

Researchers combined single-molecule force spectroscopy and bulk transport experiments to show that aromatic dissolved organic matter forms an eco-corona on polystyrene microplastics via cation-π interactions, weakening bubble-mediated ejection and promoting aggregation in seawater, while polar PLA microplastics remain colloidally stable and more amenable to vertical atmospheric transport.

2026 Environmental Science & Technology
Article Tier 2

Numerical simulations of bursting bubbles: effects of contamination on droplet ejection and micro- and nanoplastics transport

Scientists used computer simulations to study how tiny plastic particles get launched into the air when bubbles pop at water surfaces, like in oceans or wastewater treatment plants. They found that contaminants in the water change how bubbles burst and affect how many droplets containing microplastics are released into the air we breathe. This research helps us better understand how microplastics from polluted water can end up in the atmosphere and potentially impact human health through inhalation.

2026
Article Tier 2

Enrichment of Scavenged Particles in Jet Drops Determined by Bubble Size and Particle Position

Researchers demonstrated that when bubbles burst in contaminated water, particles larger than previously assumed can be transported into jet drops and become highly concentrated, with enrichment depending on bubble size and particle position on the bubble surface.

2023 Physical Review Letters 38 citations
Article Tier 2

Is froth flotation a potential scheme for microplastics removal? Analysis on flotation kinetics and surface characteristics

This study evaluated froth flotation as a method for removing microplastics from water, finding that surface hydrophobicity governs flotation efficiency and that the technique shows promise as a scalable treatment option for certain polymer types.

2021 The Science of The Total Environment 76 citations
Article Tier 2

Nanoscale interaction mechanism between bubbles and microplastics under the influence of natural organic matter in simulated marine environment

Researchers used atomic force microscopy to measure the nanoscale interactions between air bubbles and different types of microplastics in simulated seawater. They found that hydrophobic plastics like polystyrene and PVC showed stronger bubble attachment than hydrophilic ones, and that humic acid in the water significantly weakened these interactions. The study suggests that natural organic matter in oceans may reduce the tendency of microplastics to be carried to the surface by bubbles, affecting how they circulate in marine environments.

2025 Journal of Hazardous Materials 9 citations
Article Tier 2

Effects of Particle Shape and Surface Structure on the Adsorption Properties of Polystyrene Microplastics

Researchers analyzed how particle shape and surface structure affect the adsorption properties of polystyrene microplastics toward organic pollutants, reviewing experimental literature to disentangle the influence of surface layer morphology from bulk particle characteristics. The study found that surface porosity and roughness significantly modify adsorption capacity and kinetics, cautioning that results from idealized model spheres may not accurately represent the behavior of environmentally aged or irregularly shaped microplastic particles.

2024 Polymers 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Sorption properties of hydrophobic organic chemicals to micro-sized polystyrene particles

Laboratory sorption experiments measured how hydrophobic organic chemicals (HOCs) partition onto polystyrene microplastics of various sizes, finding that sorption capacity increased with decreasing particle size, consistent with surface-area-dependent partitioning. This confirms that smaller microplastics are more effective carriers of hydrophobic contaminants per unit mass, with implications for toxicological risk assessment.

2019 The Science of The Total Environment 62 citations
Article Tier 2

The difference of aggregation mechanism between microplastics and nanoplastics: Role of Brownian motion and structural layer force

The aggregation mechanisms of 100-nm and 1-micrometer polystyrene particles were compared under different water chemistry conditions to understand how microplastics and nanoplastics behave differently in aquatic environments. The study found distinct aggregation pathways between the two size classes, driven by differences in electrostatic forces and surface properties.

2020 Environmental Pollution 126 citations
Article Tier 2

Transport of different microplastics in porous media: Effect of the adhesion of surfactants on microplastics

Researchers investigated how surfactant adhesion on different microplastic surfaces affects their transport through porous media, finding that surfactant interactions vary with microplastic type and significantly alter their mobility in subsurface environments.

2022 Water Research 99 citations
Article Tier 2

Enrichment of microplastic pollution by micro-nanobubbles

Researchers investigated micro-nanobubbles as a novel technique for concentrating and removing microplastic pollution from water, finding that bubble-particle interactions can significantly enrich microplastic concentrations and offer a promising avenue for remediation.

2022 Chinese Physics B 5 citations
Article Tier 2

Effects of size and surface charge on the sedimentation of nanoplastics in freshwater

Researchers investigated how size and surface charge of polystyrene nanoplastics affect their sedimentation behavior in freshwater, finding that both properties significantly influence aggregation dynamics and settling rates, with implications for predicting nanoplastic fate in aquatic environments.

2023 Chemosphere 17 citations