Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Jet Drop Enrichment: A Low-Cost Method for Simultaneous PFAS and Microplastics Removal from Drinking Water

Researchers developed a low-cost water treatment method that uses the tiny droplets formed when bubbles burst at a water surface to simultaneously remove both PFAS ('forever chemicals') and fine microplastics from drinking water, achieving up to 99% removal of long-chain PFAS and microplastics. Adding a low-cost ion-exchange resin extended the approach to short-chain PFAS as well. This is significant because conventional water treatment struggles with both contaminants, and this bubble-based method offers a simple, scalable solution with minimal materials.

2026 Mendeley Data
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

Jet Drop Enrichment: A Low-Cost Method for Simultaneous PFAS and Microplastics Removal from Drinking Water

This is a duplicate of entry 1099 — the same paper on using jet drop enrichment to remove PFAS and microplastics from drinking water.

2026 Mendeley Data
Article Tier 2

Utilization of Bubbles and Oil for Microplastic Capture from Water

Researchers demonstrated a simple method using vegetable oil and air bubbles to capture over 98% of microplastics from water, achieving complete removal of larger particles and high capture of microfibers — a potentially passive, low-cost cleanup approach that avoids releasing secondary contamination into treated water.

2024 Engineering 7 citations
Article Tier 2

Removal of micron-scale microplastic particles from different waters with efficient tool of surface-functionalized microbubbles

Researchers used surface-functionalized microbubbles (colloidal gas aphrons) to simultaneously remove micron-scale microplastic particles and dissolved organic matter from water, achieving over 94% polystyrene removal and near-complete color elimination in river water and wastewater plant influent through electrostatic and complexation interactions.

2020 Journal of Hazardous Materials 105 citations
Article Tier 2

Enhanced microplastic removal using a mini-hydrocyclone with microbubbles

Researchers improved microplastic separation from water by combining mini-hydrocyclones with microbubble injection, finding that the microbubbles reduced apparent microplastic density and substantially improved separation efficiency for particles with densities similar to water.

2025 Water Research
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

Enhanced removal of microplastics using microflotation

Researchers demonstrated that microflotation, a process using optimized small bubble sizes, can remove 84-98% of microplastics from water without requiring chemical additives like flocculants or coagulants. Using a pilot-scale system, they tested removal of 30 and 100 micrometer polystyrene particles across environmentally relevant concentrations. The study suggests that microflotation offers an efficient and chemical-free alternative for microplastic removal in water treatment applications.

2026 The Science of The Total Environment
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

Removal of Microplastics/Microfibers and Detergents from Laundry Wastewater by Microbubble Flotation

Researchers developed a microbubble flotation system that removes over 98% of microplastics and 95% of detergent surfactants from laundry wastewater. The study successfully scaled the approach from bench-level to a pilot-scale column over 5 meters tall, demonstrating a practical, cost-effective solution for treating one of the largest sources of microplastic pollution entering waterways.

2024 ACS ES&T Water 29 citations
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

Effective Removal of Microplastics Using a Process of Ozonation Followed by Flocculation with Aluminum Sulfate and Polyacrylamide

Researchers tested a two-step water treatment process combining ozonation with flocculation to remove microplastics. They found that ozone pretreatment roughened the microplastic surfaces and added chemical groups that dramatically improved removal rates, from 40% to 91%, during the subsequent flocculation step. The findings suggest this combined approach could significantly enhance microplastic removal in conventional water treatment plants.

2025 Separations 3 citations
Article Tier 2

Simultaneous monitoring of flow patterns, and bubble, and plastics micro-particle characteristics in Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF)

Researchers used a lab-scale dissolved air flotation (DAF) tank to simultaneously track microbubbles and microplastic particles, finding that particle dynamics and flow regimes within the tank significantly influenced removal performance. The study offers insights for optimizing DAF water treatment systems to better capture microplastics during drinking water or wastewater processing.

2023 Process Safety and Environmental Protection 12 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

The removal efficiency and mechanism of microplastic enhancement by positive modification dissolved air flotation

Researchers enhanced dissolved air flotation by modifying the process with positively charged surfaces to improve microplastic removal from freshwater, finding that the modified approach significantly outperformed conventional dissolved air flotation across three common polymer types.

2020 Water Environment Research 90 citations
Article Tier 2

Utilizing Hydrophobic Surfaces for Microplastics Quantification and Detection in Water Reservoirs

This study developed a cost-effective method using hydrophobic surfaces to capture and quantify microplastics from water samples. The approach simplifies detection by concentrating particles onto a surface before analysis, reducing the need for expensive equipment. The method could make routine microplastic monitoring in drinking water and reservoirs more practical.

2023 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Advanced nanobubble flotation for enhanced removal of sub-10 µm microplastics from wastewater

Scientists developed a nanobubble-assisted flotation technique that improves removal of very small microplastics (under 10 micrometers) from wastewater by up to 17% compared to traditional methods. Removing these tiny particles is especially important because their small size makes them more likely to pass through water treatment and eventually be consumed by humans.

2024 Nature Communications 41 citations
Article Tier 2

Efficient removal of nanoplastics from industrial wastewater through synergetic electrophoretic deposition and particle-stabilized foam formation

Researchers developed a new method to remove nanoplastics from industrial wastewater by combining electrophoretic deposition with particle-stabilized foam formation. The process uses pH changes from water electrolysis to make tiny plastic particles attach to bubbles near the electrode, achieving removal rates above 90%. The technique was successfully tested on real-world wastewater from paint and plastics manufacturing, offering a practical approach to addressing nanoplastic pollution that is too small for conventional filters.

2024 Nature Communications 36 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

Generation Mechanism of Hydroxyl Radical in Micro Nano Bubbles Water and Its Prospect in Drinking Water

Not relevant to microplastics — this review covers the generation and application of hydroxyl radicals in micro-nano bubble water systems for removing chemical pollutants and biofilms, focused on water purification chemistry rather than microplastics.

2024 Preprints.org 3 citations
Article Tier 2

Elimination of a Mixture of Microplastics Using Conventional and Detergent-Assisted Coagulation

Researchers tested coagulation as a method to remove microplastics from tap water, evaluating how microplastic type (PE and PVC), water pH, coagulant dose, and microplastic concentration affect removal efficiency, and finding that detergent-assisted coagulation improves performance.

2023 Materials 20 citations
Article Tier 2

A solution for controling microplastics in drinking water

Researchers developed and tested a technology for controlling microplastic contamination in drinking water, targeting particles at concentrations relevant to typical tap and bottled water exposure. The solution demonstrated effective removal of microplastics from drinking water under realistic treatment conditions.

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

Integrated Chitosan-based coagulation and microbubble pre-treatment for improved microplastic fibre removal from water

Researchers developed a combined chitosan-based coagulation and microbubble pre-treatment system for removing microplastic fibres from water, finding that this approach overcame the limitations of conventional inorganic coagulants and improved removal efficiency for the morphologically challenging fibre fraction.

2025 The Science of The Total Environment
Article Tier 2

Environmental aspects of restoring the environment: nanotechnology for removing micro and nanoplastics from water

Researchers developed a plasma chemical water purification method that combines modified humic substances with high-voltage electrical discharge to aggregate and magnetically remove micro- and nanoplastics from contaminated water. Tested on wastewater from a printing facility, the method outperformed conventional sorption or plasma treatment alone and showed promise for simultaneously removing plastics, heavy metals, and organic pollutants. This offers a potentially scalable technology for treating industrial wastewater sources that are currently releasing nanoplastics to the environment.

2023 Environment & Health