The low-cost foam Chinese scientists say can remove up to 99.8% of microplastics from water
Researchers in China develop sustainable substance derived from squid bones and cotton to tackle harmful plastic particle pollution
The foam was developed by researchers from Wuhan University, the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, Donghua University in Shanghai, and Guangxi University in Nanning. They wrote about their findings in a peer-reviewed paper in the journal Science Advances published on November 29.
According to the paper, the researchers first identified two types of sustainable biomass, chitin and cellulose, that are commonly used as adsorbents – a type of material that can collect another substance, such as a pollutant or toxin, on its surface.
The scientists then extracted the chitin from squid bones and the cellulose from cotton. The two substances were combined into a foam named Ct-Cel, which proved highly effective at removing microplastics from water.
The foam removed 89.9 to 99.8 per cent of polystyrene from water in samples containing different concentrations of the common plastic.
It also proved effective at extracting other plastics, including polymethyl methacrylate, polypropylene, and polyethylene terephthalate. Its ability to capture these plastics was almost unaffected by the presence of other distractions, such as heavy metals, microorganisms and organic pollutants.
