Microplastic contamination refers to the presence and distribution of synthetic polymer particles typically <5 mm in environmental matrices, including marine, freshwater, terrestrial, atmospheric, and biological systems. As a research topic, it encompasses sources (primary and secondary microplastics), transport pathways (e.g., hydrodynamic and atmospheric dispersion), physicochemical properties (size, shape, polymer type, surface chemistry), and interactions with co-contaminants such as persistent organic pollutants and metals. Studies investigate bioavailability, trophic transfer, organismal and cellular responses, and potential human exposure via inhalation and ingestion, as well as methodological challenges in sampling, analytical detection, quantification, and risk assessment frameworks.
A new study by a research team from Diamond Light Source looks at how microplastics wastes may interact with zinc oxide (ZnO) nanomaterials in freshwater and seawater scenarios. It also evaluated, a ZnO-based sunscreen and ...
Bio & Medicine
Aug 17, 2023
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128
Pouring flecks of rust into water usually makes it dirtier. But researchers have developed special iron oxide nanoparticles they call "smart rust" that actually makes it cleaner. Smart rust can attract many substances, including ...
Nanomaterials
Aug 16, 2023
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241
Using conventional testing techniques, it can be challenging—sometimes impossible—to detect harmful contaminants such as nano-plastics, air pollutants and microbes in living organisms and natural materials. These contaminants ...
Nanophysics
Jul 31, 2023
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Microplastics are tiny, barely visible plastic particles that can harm the environment, for example, if they are eaten by animals. However, it has been difficult to assess the effect of even smaller particles, which can hardly ...
Nanophysics
Jul 18, 2023
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84
Plastics are among the most ubiquitous manmade materials—we wear them, build with them, play with them, ship goods in them, and then we throw them into the waste stream. Ultimately, they can break down into tiny particles ...
Bio & Medicine
Jun 12, 2023
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111
Among the biggest environmental problems of our time, micro- and nanoplastic particles (MNPs) can enter the body in various ways, including through food. And now for the first time, research conducted at MedUni Vienna has ...
Bio & Medicine
Apr 21, 2023
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422
Nanoscale plastic particles like those that permeate most food and water pass from pregnant rats to their unborn children and may impair fetal development, according to a Rutgers study that suggests the same process happens ...
Bio & Medicine
Feb 27, 2023
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128
Nanoplastics are plastics that have been discarded from our daily lives and that enter ecosystems in the size scale below 1 μm after their physical and chemical disintegration. Recent research has shown that the concentration ...
Nanophysics
Feb 27, 2023
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147
Plastics are ubiquitous in our society, found in packaging and bottles as well as making up more than 18% of solid waste in landfills. Many of these plastics also make their way into the oceans, where they take up to hundreds ...
Nanomaterials
Jan 6, 2023
3
367
Researchers at RMIT University have found an innovative way to rapidly remove hazardous microplastics from water using magnets.
Nanomaterials
Nov 29, 2022
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215
