\u201cOur goal here was to develop a multiscale structure that allows us to capture the full range of plastic microparticles<\/a>,\u201d Orlin Velev, PhD, a chemical and biomolecular engineering professor at North Carolina State University, revealed. \u201cWe wanted to create structures that mimicked what the tangled seaweed is already doing.\u201d<\/p>\n Rather than simply copying the appearance of seaweed, the researchers recreated its tangled structure using sustainable biopolymers. According to Velev, the mesh is made from alginate, a carbohydrate polymer derived from seaweed, as well as chitosan, which comes from crustacean shells. <\/p>\n It features a highly porous network coated with extremely fine chitosan fibers that consist of soft dendritic colloids. These are structures that branch repeatedly into finer and finer filaments, ending in a tuft-like crown of nanofibers.<\/p>\n The combination creates what looks like a fluffy net. The structure allows the soft dendritic colloids to stick to almost any surface and to directly capture polymer microparticles and nanoparticles from water.<\/p>\n The larger openings in the mesh can physically capture bigger plastic fragments<\/a>. Meanwhile, the fuzzy nanofiber coating adheres to much smaller particles, which would normally pass through conventional filters.<\/p>\n Trapping plastics of all sizes<\/p>\n In proof-of-concept testing, the new mesh successfully captured both laboratory-produced nanoparticles and real-world microplastics collected from water. It was effective in both freshwater and saltwater, and therefore proved its potential for a variety of aquatic environments.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat you end up with looks like a fluffy net,\u201d Velev explained. \u201cThe \u2018net\u2019 part of the structure is a mesh capable of capturing the larger plastic microparticles \u2013 a millimeter or larger in size.\u201d <\/p>\n One of the mesh\u2019s main advantages is its ability to capture particles spanning an exceptionally broad size range, from approximately five millimeters down to tens of nanometers. This could potentially replace multiple filtration systems used to capture different-sized particles.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Additionally, if the mesh becomes filled with plastic debris, it could potentially be recycled through microbial digestion. As both the mesh and its captured contents can be processed biologically, the approach could break down the biodegradable material and the collected microplastics. <\/p>\n It could furthermore produce raw materials to manufacture new cleanup meshes. \u201cWe\u2019ve demonstrated that this design works,\u201d Velev concluded in a press release<\/a>. \u201cAnd the materials we used are of natural origin and relatively inexpensive.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Z1_73e94b.jpg\" "\\"Seaweed-inspired")
A collection of plastic microparticles.
Credit: Byeunggon Kim, Haeleen Hong, Orlin Velev \/ NC State University<\/a><\/p>\n