Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

The Potentiality of Reuse Industrial Waste for Diverse Water Treatment -An Overview

This overview reviews innovative adsorbent materials made from industrial waste that can remove diverse pollutants from wastewater at low cost. While not focused on microplastics specifically, it is relevant to the broader challenge of plastic and chemical pollution remediation in water systems.

2023 Sustainable Chemical Engineering 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Insights into using plastic waste to produce activated carbons for wastewater treatment applications: A review

This review explores the potential of converting plastic waste into activated carbon, a material widely used to filter pollutants from water. Researchers found that various plastics including polyethylene, polystyrene, and PET can be transformed into effective adsorbents through controlled heating processes. The approach offers a promising way to simultaneously address plastic waste accumulation and water pollution challenges.

2024 Journal of Water Process Engineering 30 citations
Article Tier 2

Emerging Contaminants and Their Removal from Aqueous Media Using Conventional/Non-Conventional Adsorbents: A Glance at the Relationship between Materials, Processes, and Technologies

This review covers various methods for removing emerging contaminants, including microplastics, from water using materials that absorb pollutants. Activated carbon remains the most effective option, but researchers are also developing cheaper alternatives from agricultural waste and nanomaterials. The work is important because better water treatment methods could reduce human exposure to microplastics and other harmful substances in drinking water.

2023 Water 60 citations
Article Tier 2

Innovations in the Development of Promising Adsorbents for the Remediation of Microplastics and Nanoplastics – A Critical Review

This review evaluates innovative materials being developed to remove microplastics and nanoplastics from polluted water, including carbon-based, metal, polymer, and mineral adsorbents. Researchers compared the effectiveness, advantages, and limitations of each type, finding that adsorption-based approaches show strong promise. The study highlights remaining challenges such as scaling these technologies for real-world water treatment applications.

2022 Water Research 136 citations
Article Tier 2

Plastic waste management for sustainable environment: techniques and approaches

Researchers reviewed current plastic waste removal techniques — including adsorption, photocatalysis, and microbial degradation — and alternative resource recovery strategies, evaluating their efficiency, underlying mechanisms, and potential for converting plastic waste into adsorbents, fuels, or construction materials.

2023 Waste Disposal & Sustainable Energy 131 citations
Article Tier 2

The Use of Biochar for Removal of Emerging Contaminants in Contaminated Water

This literature review examined 15 studies on biochar for removing emerging contaminants from water and effluents, finding that biochar made from waste raw materials is a low-cost, efficient, and scalable adsorbent for various pollutants. The review is relevant to microplastic research as biochar has potential as a treatment material for water contaminated with emerging contaminants co-occurring with microplastics.

2023 Journal of Interdisciplinary Debates
Article Tier 2

Water Pollutants: Adsorptions and Solutions

This book describes technologies for removing pollutants—including microplastics—from water and wastewater using adsorption methods. Adsorption-based treatment is a promising approach for capturing plastic particles and chemical contaminants before they reach drinking water supplies or natural water bodies.

2021
Article Tier 2

A critical review of microplastics and nanoplastics in wastewater: Insights into adsorbent-based remediation strategies

This review analyzes research on removing microplastics and nanoplastics from water using materials that absorb the particles, finding that adsorption is the most widely studied removal method. Carbon-based and metal-based materials currently dominate the research, but plant-based (biopolymer) adsorbents are gaining attention because they are biodegradable and non-toxic. Better removal technologies are critical because conventional water treatment often fails to capture the smallest plastic particles that pose the greatest risk to human health.

2025 Environmental Pollution 8 citations
Article Tier 2

Engineered biochar for simultaneous removal of heavy metals and organic pollutants from wastewater: mechanisms, efficiency, and applications

Despite its title referencing wastewater treatment and biochar, this review paper focuses on using chemically modified charcoal (engineered biochar) to simultaneously remove heavy metals and organic chemical pollutants from water — not microplastic pollution. It examines adsorption mechanisms and remediation performance for metal and organic contaminants, and is not specifically relevant to microplastics or human health impacts of plastic pollution.

2025 Biochar X 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Plastic-to-values: technologies and applications

This study examines technologies and applications for converting plastic waste into valuable products, addressing plastic debris as an emerging pollutant affecting both land and marine systems globally and exploring pathways to mitigate plastic pollution through value-recovery approaches.

2023 IWA Publishing eBooks 2 citations
Review Tier 2

Adsorption of Different Pollutants by Using Microplastic with Different Influencing Factors and Mechanisms in Wastewater: A Review

This review examines how microplastics adsorb various pollutants including heavy metals, antibiotics, and organic contaminants in wastewater, analyzing the key factors and mechanisms that influence their adsorption capacity and environmental behavior.

2022 Nanomaterials 94 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic pollutants in water: A comprehensive review on their remediation by adsorption using various adsorbents

This review covers the different materials scientists are developing to filter microplastics out of water, including biochar, activated carbon, sponges, carbon nanotubes, and newer hybrid materials. Each material has trade-offs in terms of cost, effectiveness, and environmental impact, but combining different approaches shows the most promise. The research is important because better water filtration methods could directly reduce the amount of microplastics people consume through drinking water.

2024 Chemosphere 67 citations
Article Tier 2

Degradable Microplastics as Vector of Emergent Contaminants in Wastewater: Interactions and Mechanisms of Adsorption

Degradable microplastics in wastewater can act as carriers for pesticides and other contaminants, adsorbing them from the surrounding water and potentially releasing them again in different environmental conditions such as aeration tanks. This 'Trojan horse' behavior is concerning because microplastics may transport pollutants through wastewater treatment systems that were not designed to capture these combined threats.

2023 Proceedings of the Water Environment Federation
Article Tier 2

Conversion of the styrofoam waste into a high-capacity and recoverable adsorbent in the removing the toxic Pb(II) from water media

Researchers chemically modified waste styrofoam — a common plastic pollutant — into a magnetic adsorbent capable of removing toxic lead (Pb²⁺) ions from water, achieving around 90% removal efficiency. This work shows that plastic waste can be repurposed into useful water-treatment materials, offering a dual benefit of reducing plastic waste while cleaning heavy metal contamination.

2024 Global NEST Journal 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Use of Waste Plastic Char as Adsorbent for Removal of Arsenic and COD from Aqueous Solution

Researchers tested char produced from pyrolysis of waste HDPE and polypropylene plastic as an adsorbent for removing arsenic and organic matter from water. Converting waste plastic into functional water treatment materials offers a dual benefit: removing plastic from circulation while addressing other water quality problems.

2022 4 citations
Article Tier 2

Current status of using adsorbent nanomaterials for removing microplastics from water supply systems: a mini review

This review evaluates the current status and potential of adsorbent nanomaterials for removing microplastics from water supply systems, assessing their effectiveness against smaller particles that challenge conventional water treatment processes.

2025 Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnology
Article Tier 2

Hypercrosslinked waste polycarbonate to remove heavy metal contaminants from wastewater

Researchers chemically modified waste polycarbonate plastic using a process called hypercrosslinking, turning it into a resin capable of efficiently removing lead and cadmium ions from contaminated water. The material achieved removal capacities around 160 mg per gram for both toxic metals, demonstrating that plastic waste can be repurposed as a tool for cleaning up heavy metal pollution.

2024 Scientific Reports 10 citations
Article Tier 2

Mikroplastika Kao Adsorbens Opasnih Materija

This paper reviews how microplastics act as effective adsorbents for toxic substances including persistent organic pollutants, heavy metals, and pharmaceuticals in freshwater, marine, and urban environments. The ability of microplastics to concentrate and transport hazardous chemicals amplifies their potential harm to ecosystems and human health.

2021 Zbornik radova Građevinskog fakulteta
Article Tier 2

Emerging contaminants in polluted waters: Harnessing Biochar's potential for effective treatment

This review explores how biochar, a carbon-rich material made from organic waste, can be used to remove a wide range of pollutants from contaminated water, including microplastics, heavy metals, antibiotics, and PFAS. Biochar works through multiple mechanisms like adsorption, electrostatic interactions, and chemical bonding, and can be enhanced through surface modifications. The study highlights biochar as a low-cost, adaptable tool for addressing emerging water contaminants.

2024 Journal of Environmental Management 24 citations
Article Tier 2

An Innovative Sorption Technology for Removing Microplastics from Wastewater

This study developed a sorption-based technology for removing microplastics from wastewater using inexpensive natural materials, demonstrating high removal efficiency suitable for deployment as a tertiary treatment stage at wastewater treatment plants or for treating process and surface water.

2023 Water 28 citations
Article Tier 2

Evaluating the effectiveness of adsorption nano-techniques for microplastic removal: Insights and future prospects

This review evaluates the effectiveness of various adsorbent materials, including activated carbon, bioadsorbents, and advanced nanomaterials, for removing microplastics and nanoplastics from water. Researchers examined key factors like pore size, surface charge, and environmental conditions that influence removal efficiency. The study highlights the need for developing more sustainable and cost-effective adsorbent materials to tackle growing microplastic contamination in water sources.

2026 Marine Pollution Bulletin
Article Tier 2

Trends in the applications of biochar for the abatement of microplastics in water

This review examines how biochar can be used to remove microplastics and nanoplastics from water, summarizing recent advances in biochar modification strategies that improve adsorption capacity and minimize secondary pollution risks.

2025 Bioresource Technology Reports
Article Tier 2

Emerging Porous Materials for Adsorptive Removal of Microplastics and Nanoplastics from Aquatic Environments: A Review

This review summarizes recent advances in using porous materials, including sponges, aerogels, hydrogels, metal-organic frameworks, and carbon-based adsorbents, to remove microplastics and nanoplastics from water. Researchers found that adsorption using these materials is a promising, cost-effective approach that outperforms conventional water treatment methods for plastic particle removal. The study identifies key challenges and future research directions for developing practical adsorbents for real-world plastic pollution mitigation.

2025 ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics with adsorbed contaminants: Mechanisms and Treatment

This review examines how microplastics adsorb environmental contaminants including heavy metals, organic pollutants, and pathogens, and surveys treatment methods for removing contaminated microplastics from water. Researchers found that microplastics can act as vectors for hazardous substances, potentially increasing their bioavailability and toxicity in aquatic ecosystems. The study evaluates emerging remediation technologies and highlights the complex environmental risks posed by microplastics carrying adsorbed pollutants.

2021 Environmental Challenges 321 citations