Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Microplastics/nanoplastics in porous media: Key factors controlling their transport and retention behaviors

This review examines what controls how microplastics and nanoplastics move through soil and other porous materials like sand and sediment. Factors like particle size, shape, surface charge, water flow speed, and the presence of other pollutants all influence whether plastics stay in place or travel deeper into groundwater. Understanding these transport behaviors is important for assessing the risk of microplastics contaminating underground drinking water sources.

2024 The Science of The Total Environment 43 citations
Article Tier 2

Nanoplastics as carriers of organic pollutants in seawater-saturated porous media: a quantitative comparison of transport pathways

Researchers quantitatively compared transport pathways of non-polar organic pollutants carried by nanoplastics through seawater-saturated porous media, demonstrating that the carrier effect of nanoplastics is the primary mechanism inhibiting pollutant migration and enabling their co-transport in coastal and marine subsurface environments.

2025 Environmental Science Nano
Article Tier 2

Microplastics transport in soils: A critical review

Researchers reviewed how microplastics move through soil, finding that their transport depends on a complex mix of particle properties, soil chemistry, water flow, and biological activity — and that these factors often interact in ways that produce contradictory results across studies. The review maps these knowledge gaps and calls for more controlled experiments to predict where microplastics accumulate and how they might reach groundwater or crops.

2025 Earth-Science Reviews 17 citations
Article Tier 2

Nanoplastics dominate the cotransport of small-scale plastics in seawater-saturated porous media

Researchers found that nanoplastics dominated cotransport behavior when mixed with submicro- and microplastics in seawater-saturated sandy porous media, with particle-particle interactions significantly altering transport distances compared to single-component systems.

2022 Water Research 21 citations
Article Tier 2

Mechanism comparisons of transport-deposition-reentrainment between microplastics and natural mineral particles in porous media: A theoretical and experimental study

Researchers compared the transport, deposition, and re-entrainment behavior of microplastic particles versus natural mineral particles in porous media, finding key differences driven by density, surface charge, and shape that affect how microplastics migrate through soils and sediments.

2022 The Science of The Total Environment 30 citations
Article Tier 2

Particle size and co-presence of PFOA alter the transport of microplastics in saturated natural sediment

Researchers investigated how microplastic particle size and the co-presence of the contaminant PFOA affect microplastic transport through natural sediment. The study found that smaller microplastics were more mobile, while PFOA altered transport dynamics, indicating that co-occurring pollutants can influence how microplastics move through environmental substrates.

2024 Environmental Pollutants and Bioavailability 10 citations
Article Tier 2

Behaviour and transport of microplastics under saturated flow conditions in sediments and soils

Researchers investigated the behaviour and transport of microplastics under saturated flow conditions in sediments and soils, examining how particle properties influence movement through porous media. The study aimed to improve understanding of subsurface microplastic fate and transport relevant to both soil and groundwater contamination.

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

Transport and transformation of microplastics and nanoplastics in the soil environment: A critical review

This critical review examines how microplastics and nanoplastics move through and transform within soil environments. Researchers discuss aggregation, sorption of contaminants, interactions with soil organisms, and degradation pathways that affect the fate of plastic particles in terrestrial systems. The study identifies major knowledge gaps in understanding subsurface plastic transport and calls for standardized methods to better assess the ecological and health risks of soil plastic pollution.

2021 Soil Use and Management 88 citations
Article Tier 2

Micro- and nanoplastics retention in porous media exhibits different dependence on grain surface roughness and clay coating with particle size

Researchers found that grain surface roughness and clay coatings affect the retention of microplastics and nanoplastics in porous media differently depending on particle size, with nanoplastics behaving oppositely to microplastics in certain soil conditions — complicating predictions of plastic transport in groundwater systems.

2022 Water Research 38 citations
Article Tier 2

Effects of co-present mineral colloids on the transport of microplastics in porous media: The key role of hydrochemical and hydrodynamic conditions

Scientists studied how tiny plastic particles (microplastics) move through soil and sand when mixed with natural clay particles. They found that the combination of different clay types and water conditions can either help microplastics travel further underground or trap them in place. This research helps us better understand how microplastics might contaminate groundwater sources that provide our drinking water.

2026 Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety
Article Tier 2

Current understanding of subsurface transport of micro‐ and nanoplastics in soil

This review summarizes current knowledge about how micro- and nanoplastics are transported through soil subsurface environments. Researchers discuss the fundamental mechanisms governing plastic particle movement in soils, including size-dependent filtration, preferential flow through macropores, and interactions with soil colloids. The study highlights significant gaps in understanding how plastics migrate through different soil types and may eventually reach groundwater.

2021 Vadose Zone Journal 92 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

Effects of ionic strength, cation type and pH on the cotransport of microplastics with PFOA in saturated porous media

Researchers investigated how microplastics and the chemical contaminant PFOA interact when traveling together through saturated soil. The study found that microplastics generally inhibited PFOA transport through adsorption, while PFOA accelerated microplastic movement through electrostatic effects, demonstrating that co-contamination can alter the environmental fate of both pollutants.

2024 Chemosphere 14 citations
Article Tier 2

The co-transport behavior of polyacrylonitrile microplastics and aniline compounds in porous media

Experiments examined how polyacrylonitrile microplastics move through soil alongside other contaminants, finding that co-transport interactions affected both microplastic mobility and the fate of associated pollutants. Understanding these dynamics is important for assessing the spread of microplastics and their cargo in terrestrial environments.

2025 Journal of Hazardous Materials 1 citations
Article Tier 2

The individual transport, cotransport and immobilization with solar pyrolysis biochar of microplastics and plasticizer in sandy soil

Researchers tracked the individual transport, co-transport, and immobilization of microplastics in porous media, finding that plastic particle behavior differs significantly depending on surface charge and pore structure interactions. The results improve predictions of where microplastics migrate and accumulate in soils and aquifers.

2025 Journal of Hazardous Materials 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Transport and deposition of microplastic particles in saturated porous media: Co-effects of clay particles and natural organic matter

Researchers performed column experiments to study how clay particles and natural organic matter affect microplastic transport through saturated porous media, finding that both colloids reduced MP mobility through heteroaggregation and that their combined presence produced the greatest reduction in transport.

2021 Environmental Pollution 124 citations
Article Tier 2

Mechanistic insights into the co-transport of microplastic degradation products in saturated porous media: The key role of microplastics-derived DOM

Researchers investigated the co-transport of microplastic-derived dissolved organic matter (MP-DOM) and aged microplastics (AMPs) through saturated porous media under a range of environmentally relevant conditions. They found that as the degree of aging increased, changes in physicochemical characteristics of both AMPs and MP-DOM altered their transport behaviour, with MP-DOM playing a key role in the co-transport dynamics.

2024 The Science of The Total Environment 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Enhanced mobility and dynamic retention of nanoplastics in mineral coated porous media.

Scientists studied how tiny plastic particles move through different types of soil and sand that might be found in groundwater systems. They discovered that these nanoplastics travel much farther and faster through soil than previously thought, especially when water flows quickly. This matters because it suggests that plastic pollution from things like food packaging and cosmetics could spread more widely through our drinking water sources than we realized.

2026
Article Tier 2

Behaviour and transport of microplastics under saturated flow conditions in sediments and soils

Researchers investigated the behavior and transport of microplastics under saturated flow conditions in sediments and soils, examining how physical and chemical properties of microplastic particles influence their mobility through porous geological media. The study addressed knowledge gaps in understanding subsurface microplastic transport relevant to groundwater contamination and the fate of microplastics deposited in terrestrial environments.

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

Interplay of compound pollutants with microplastics transported in saturated porous media: Effect of co-existing graphene oxide and tetracycline

Column experiments investigated how co-contaminants (graphene oxide and tetracycline) affect the transport of polystyrene microplastics through saturated porous media, finding that the presence of these compounds altered MP mobility and retention in ways depending on their concentration and soil properties.

2023 Journal of Contaminant Hydrology 15 citations
Article Tier 2

Facilitated transport of microplastics and nonylphenol in porous media with variations in physicochemical heterogeneity

Researchers found that when microplastics and the endocrine disruptor nonylphenol coexist, their mobility through soil is enhanced due to mutual association and competition for retention sites, increasing potential groundwater contamination risk.

2022 Environmental Pollution 21 citations
Article Tier 2

Recent advances on the transport of microplastics/nanoplastics in abiotic and biotic compartments

This review synthesizes recent findings on how microplastics and nanoplastics are transported through environmental compartments including water, soil, atmosphere, and biological systems, highlighting key factors that govern their fate and distribution.

2022 Journal of Hazardous Materials 136 citations
Article Tier 2

Shape Heterogeneity Facilitates the Transport of Certain Sized Nanoplastics and Eliminates Their Inhibition Effect on the Transport of Coexisting Other Sized Nanoplastics in Porous Media

This study examined how nanoplastics of different sizes (50, 200, and 500 nm) move and bind together when passing through soil and sediment, finding that irregular particle shapes increase surface roughness and promote adsorption while also blocking other particle sizes from moving through pores. Understanding how nanoplastics travel through soil is essential for predicting how deeply they can penetrate into groundwater and ecosystems.

2024 ACS ES&T Water 3 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics transport in soils: A critical review

This critical review examined how microplastics are transported through soils, evaluating the role of particle size and shape, soil texture, water flow, and bioturbation in governing vertical and lateral transport. The authors identify knowledge gaps in field-scale transport processes and call for standardized leaching experiments to improve predictions of microplastic mobility in terrestrial systems.

2024 1 citations