From plastic that pollutes water to a tool that helps clean it up. Researchers at Madrid’s Institute of Materials Science (ICMM), part of the CSIC, have developed flower-shaped iron oxide nanoparticles capable of capturing nanoplastics, fragments a thousand times smaller than a microplastic, derived from PET, one of the most common materials used in bottles, packaging and polyester clothing. The study has been published in the Chemical Engineering Journal.
The secret lies in the shape. "Iron oxide is a magnetic material that allows many pollutants to be trapped at once. In addition, its nanoflower structure means that the particles have several cores that cooperate to enhance their magnetic properties," explains Álvaro Gallo-Córdova, a researcher at ICMM-CSIC and one of the lead authors of the study, together with Rafael Herrera-Aquino and María del Puerto Morales.
From the microplastics in make-up to PET nanoplastics
It is not the first time these particles have proved their usefulness: in 2024 they already managed to extract and degrade microplastics measuring between 0.001 and 5 millimetres, originating from cosmetics. The step forward now is one of scale. Nanoplastics measure a billionth of a metre, a thousand times smaller than those microplastics.
