Cellulose and chitin foam can remove nearly all microplastics from water

A foam made of cellulose and chitin can remove up to 99.9% of microplastics from water and maintains efficiency after multiple cycles of use.

Microplastic pollution in terrestrial and aquatic environments is escalating at a significant rate and the development of universal approaches for remediation are urgently needed. To find a solution, the team of researchers, who were based in China, set out to design a sustainable and adaptable adsorbent material through supramolecular self-assembly of two of the most abundant polysaccharides in nature: chitin, derived from squid, and cellulose, from cotton.