Microplastics represent a major environmental and health concern today. Researchers have developed a foam capable of capturing them with remarkable efficiency.
Cellulose and chitin
The quantities of microplastics that pollute terrestrial and aquatic habitats are expected to continue to increase for thousands of years, due to the slow degradation of alarming volumes of plastic waste already present in the environment (around 4.6 billion tonnes).
« Aquatic ecosystems are the most impacted, because they present conditions favoring their combination with other contaminants, ingested by organisms belonging to different links in the food chain. », Write the authors of the new study, published in the journal Science Advances.
In order to effectively eliminate them from this type of environment, the team created a material based on cellulose and chitin (main component of the exoskeleton of arthropods, also present in certain fungi and lichens). When their initial hydrogen bonds were broken, the two molecules clumped together, forming a structure particularly suited to absorbing microplastics.
Impressive performance
A series of experiments involving samples of lake, agricultural irrigation, coastal and stagnant water showed that it was capable of removing 98-99.9% of these pollutants via “ physical interception, electrostatic attraction, as well as multiple intermolecular interactions “. After five cycles, this rate still exceeded 95%.
Described as durable and safe for ocean environments, this super-foam could also be used to treat water discharged from different industries, to prevent additional amounts of microplastics from ending up in the environment.
Earlier this month, scientists unveiled a biodegradable plastic that can completely dissolve in the ocean, without releasing these problematic particles, which range in size from 5 mm to a few hundred nanometers.
Health
Canada
