Papers

61,005 results
|
Article Tier 2

Surface Modifications of BiVO 4 Semiconductor Materials for Photocatalytic Degradation of Micro‐ and Nano‐Plastic

Researchers reviewed how modifying the surface of a semiconductor material called bismuth vanadate (BiVO4) — through metal doping, added catalysts, or nano-structuring — enhances its ability to break down microplastics and nanoplastics using sunlight. These surface engineering strategies improve the material's ability to generate reactive chemicals that degrade plastic particles, offering a photocatalytic approach to plastic pollution remediation.

2025
Article Tier 2

Bi‐based photocatalysts for light‐driven environmental and energy applications: Structural tuning, reaction mechanisms, and challenges

This review examines bismuth-based photocatalysts that use visible light to break down environmental pollutants and convert energy. Researchers summarized various structural modification strategies that improve the photocatalytic performance of these materials. The findings are relevant to microplastic pollution because advanced photocatalysts represent a potential technology for degrading plastic particles in water treatment systems.

2020 EcoMat 139 citations
Article Tier 2

Decomposition of microplastics using copper oxide/bismuth vanadate-based photocatalysts: Insight mechanisms and environmental impacts

Researchers developed a light-activated catalyst using copper oxide and bismuth vanadate that can break down microplastics in wastewater. The treatment effectively degraded the plastic surfaces, though the treated water still needed dilution before being safely discharged due to residual chemicals that were harmful to test organisms. This technology could help reduce microplastic levels in wastewater before it reaches rivers and oceans where it enters the food chain.

2024 Marine Pollution Bulletin 23 citations
Article Tier 2

Photocatalytic Technologies for Transformation and Degradation of Microplastics in the Environment: Current Achievements and Future Prospects

This review examines photocatalytic technologies that use light-activated materials to break down microplastics in the environment. Various catalysts can generate reactive oxygen species that degrade plastic polymers into simpler, less harmful molecules. The authors assess the strengths and limitations of different photocatalytic approaches and highlight the need for scalable solutions that work under real-world environmental conditions.

2023 Catalysts 51 citations
Article Tier 2

Photocatalytic TiO2 Micromotors for Removal of Microplastics and Suspended Matter

Researchers developed titanium dioxide micromotor particles that can move autonomously using light energy and break down polystyrene microplastics through photocatalytic reactions. This active degradation approach could complement passive filtration methods for removing microplastics from contaminated water.

2019 16 citations
Article Tier 2

Dual‐Wavelength Actuated Microrobots for Efficient Microplastic Removal

Researchers developed a dual-wavelength light-driven microrobot system based on BiVO4 microparticles coated with an organic semiconductor for efficient microplastic removal from water. The decoupled dual-wavelength actuation enabled programmable movement and greater adaptability compared to single-wavelength microrobotic systems.

2026 Advanced Functional Materials 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Treatment Of Polyvınyl Chlorıde (Pvc), Polypropylene (Pp) Mıcroplastics, Usıng Bi2wo6 / Fe3o4 Nanocomposıte

Researchers applied photodegradation — a clean, green removal technology — to treat polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polypropylene (PP) microplastics, evaluating the technique as a solution to the chemical inertness and environmental accumulation problems that make microplastics a persistent ecological threat.

2024 Clinical Reviews and Case Reports
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

Photocatalytic TiO 2 Micromotors for Removal of Microplastics and Suspended Matter

Gold/nickel/TiO₂ photocatalytic micromotors were developed and shown to effectively attract, capture, and degrade microplastics under UV light by combining active motion with catalytic activity. The study presents a novel proof-of-concept approach to microplastic remediation at the microscale using self-propelled photocatalytic particles.

2019 ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 351 citations
Article Tier 2

Synthesis of Novel Bismuth-Based Catalysts for the Degradation of Microplastics in Aquatic Matrices

Researchers synthesized two bismuth-based photocatalysts — BiPO4 and Bi2O3/TiO2 — and tested them against polypropylene microplastics under UV irradiation, finding BiPO4 more effective under UV-B (up to 10.81% area reduction) and Bi2O3/TiO2 more effective under UV-A (up to 9.15% area reduction), with FTIR confirming incipient structural degradation.

2025 Microplastics
Article Tier 2

Micromachines for Microplastics Treatment

This review summarizes advances in micro- and nanomotor devices for microplastic removal from aquatic environments, describing how these tiny machines can be powered by chemical fuels or light to propel themselves and capture or degrade plastic particles. The authors identify scalability and environmental safety as key challenges for transitioning from laboratory demonstrations to real-world applications.

2022 ACS Nanoscience Au 44 citations
Article Tier 2

Advances in photothermal water evaporation: synthesis, mechanisms, and coupled techniques

This review covers advances in materials that use sunlight to purify water through evaporation, which can produce clean water from seawater, rivers, and wastewater. While not specifically about microplastics, these solar-powered water purification technologies could potentially help remove microplastics from contaminated water sources. The development of more efficient and affordable systems could be important for providing clean drinking water in areas affected by microplastic pollution.

2025 Energy Materials 21 citations
Article Tier 2

Photocatalytic collection and degradation of microplastics by self-asymmetric Pac-Man TiO2

Researchers developed self-propelled photocatalytic micro-motors shaped like an asymmetric Pac-Man that can collect and degrade microplastics in water using light energy. The asymmetric design allowed the motors to actively swim, gather microplastic particles through phoretic attraction, and then photocatalytically break them down. This self-powered collection and degradation system represents a promising new approach to removing microplastics from water bodies.

2023
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

Light-driven degradation of microplastics: Mechanisms, technologies, and future directions

This review examines photocatalytic technologies for breaking down microplastics using light-driven chemical processes. Researchers found that photocatalysts can potentially mineralize microplastics into carbon dioxide and water, with some approaches also enabling recovery of useful chemical products. The study highlights light-driven degradation as a promising direction for microplastic remediation, though challenges around efficiency and scalability remain to be addressed.

2025 Journal of Hazardous Materials Advances 6 citations
Article Tier 2

Degradation of Micro- and Nano-Plastics by Photocatalytic Methods

This paper reviews photocatalytic methods — using light-activated catalysts — as a way to break down micro- and nano-plastics in the environment. These approaches offer a promising path toward degrading persistent plastic particles that accumulate in marine and drinking water systems.

2017 Journal of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Applications 56 citations
Article Tier 2

Photophoretic MoS2–Fe2O3 Piranha Micromotors for Collective Dynamic Microplastics Removal

Researchers developed novel MoS2-Fe2O3 micromotors that use light-driven motion to capture and degrade polystyrene microplastics in water. The micromotors demonstrated schooling behavior under solar light and achieved significant microplastic removal without requiring chemical fuel, suggesting a promising approach for environmental microplastic remediation.

2024 ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 14 citations
Article Tier 2

Metal oxide single-component light-powered micromotors for photocatalytic degradation of nitroaromatic pollutants

Researchers developed metal oxide micromotors powered by light that can actively move through water while simultaneously degrading nitroaromatic pollutants via photocatalysis, demonstrating that active particle motion significantly enhances pollutant degradation rates compared to static photocatalysts.

2023 npj Clean Water 28 citations
Article Tier 2

Micromotors of MnO2 for the Recovery of Microplastics

Researchers synthesized MnO2 particles and evaluated their use as micromotors powered by chemical reactions for the removal of microplastics from aquatic environments. The MnO2 micromotors demonstrated autonomous movement and effective capture of microplastic particles, offering a novel active remediation approach for plastic-contaminated water.

2024 Micromachines 4 citations
Article Tier 2

Countering microplastics pollution with photocatalysis: Challenge and prospects

This review summarized the use of photocatalysis for degrading microplastics, covering catalyst types, reaction mechanisms, and operational parameters, and discussing challenges including the stability of highly polymerized plastics and prospects for scaling photocatalytic treatment to address environmental microplastic pollution.

2023 Progress in Natural Science Materials International 26 citations
Article Tier 2

Photocatalytic strategy to mitigate microplastic pollution in aquatic environments: Promising catalysts, efficiencies, mechanisms, and ecological risks

This review summarizes recent advances in photocatalytic degradation of microplastics, covering catalysts, mechanisms, and reactive oxygen species generation pathways. The authors call for more realistic photocatalytic materials, better mechanistic understanding of degradation intermediates, and quantitative ecological risk assessment of photocatalysis byproducts.

2022 Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology 54 citations
Article Tier 2

A Maze in Plastic Wastes: Autonomous Motile Photocatalytic Microrobots against Microplastics

Researchers developed sunlight-powered microrobots that can autonomously navigate through water channels, capture microplastic particles, and break them down through photocatalysis. The tiny robots combine photocatalytic and magnetic materials, allowing them to self-propel under visible light and be precisely guided with magnets. The study demonstrates a novel, energy-efficient approach to actively seeking out and degrading microplastic pollution in aquatic environments.

2021 ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 124 citations
Article Tier 2

Efficiency of Hybrid Materials for Photocatalytic Degradation of Micro‐ and Nano‐Plastics

Researchers reviewed how hybrid materials — combinations of multiple substances engineered at the nanoscale — can serve as highly effective photocatalysts to break down microplastics and nanoplastics using light energy. These multi-functional materials improve electron separation and reaction efficiency compared to single-component catalysts, representing a promising technological pathway for removing persistent plastic particles from the environment.

2025
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