Removing Microplastics from Soil with Tumbling Magnetic Flakes

Extracting microplastics from soil is far more difficult than removing them from water, per Hackaday. Researchers including Jeonghyo Kim developed magnetic flakes—MXene microparticles paired with ferromagnetic nickel nanoparticles—that can be pulled through soil using an external magnetic field. Their laboratory tests, published in npg asia materials, removed eighty-one percent of polystyrene and seventy-two percent of PET microplastics from soil, with even higher rates achieved in water. The flakes are then recovered with a strong magnet. How well this approach works across the range of real-world soil types and conditions remains to be seen.

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