Nanonet trapping for effective removal of nanoplastics by iron coagulation
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Nanoplastics (NPs) are emerging aqueous pollutants, posing risks to drinking water safety and human health. However, conventional coagulants, widely employed in water treatment plants globally, are ineffective at removing NPs. Here, we present an in-situ Fe(III) method based on the simultaneous use of Fe(II) coagulant and an oxidant to enhance conventional coagulation by altering the nanostructure of Fe-based precipitates in flocs for efficient NP removal. Unlike the nanospheres formed by conventional Fe(III) coagulation, which are weakly attached to the NP surface, nanosheets formed by our approach can fully encapsulate NPs, achieving efficient nanonet trapping with a flexible mesh structure. In-situ formed nanosheets exhibit faster agglomeration, higher removal rate, and stronger anti-interference ability. The practical viability of our approach was proven in different natural water samples, where the inhibition for NP removal by various constituents of natural organic matter was effectively reduced. Theoretical calculations demonstrate that crystal structure differences between such nanosheets and nanospheres change short-range forces, thereby enhancing NP removal. Overall, this concept of modifying the nanoscale crystal structure of flocs offers valuable insights into enhanced coagulation processes, with broad applications in water treatment and environmental systems, and provides a promising solution to the critical challenge of NP removal.
Date Issued
2025-07-01
Date Acceptance
2025-06-08
Citation
Nature Communications, 2025, 16
ISSN
2041-1723
Publisher
Nature Portfolio
Journal / Book Title
Nature Communications
Volume
16
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2025 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
5998
Date Publish Online
2025-07-01