Researchers at RMIT University in the Australian city of Melbourne have developed a magnetic powder capable of removing microplastics from water in an hour.
The scientists say that the powder, made of nanomaterials containing iron, manages to attract microplastics without creating other polluting substances or carbon footprints, the university said in a statement Wednesday.
This material, which is made from recycled materials, is mixed with water containing microplastics.
A magnet attracts the material that the team used to make adsorbents that remove microplastics and dissolved pollutants from water
“This whole process takes one hour, compared to other inventions taking days,” Muhammad Haris, the first author and Ph.D. candidate from the School of Engineering, said.
“Existing methods could take days to remove microplastics from water, while our cheap and sustainable invention achieves better results in just one hour,” said the lead researcher, Professor Nicky Esthtiaghi in a statement published by Australia’s RMIT University.
It can also mop up microplastics 1,000 times smaller than those currently detectable by most advanced treatment plants ever existed. By contrast, conventional purification techniques take days to complete and even only capture plastic particles of a few millimeters but tinier microplastics were unable to be captured before this invention.
