Analysis and treatment of microplastics in water treatment: research trends, perspectives and implications

Highlights

	● Bibliometric analysis of microplastics in water treatment was conducted.
	● Traditional water treatment methods are inadequate for eradicating microplastics.
	● Unified standards are essential for the sampling and detection of microplastics.
	● Research regarding health hazards of microplastics composite pollution is needed.

Abstract

In recent years, concerns regarding the adverse effects of microplastics (MPs) on both the environment and human life have been increasingly raised. The presence of MPs in the aquatic environment and relevant treatment attracts growing attention worldwide. To address the rising concerns about public health and the regulatory pressure, numerous endeavors have been directed toward the development of effective analysis and treatment technologies for the removal of MPs from water. This review aimed to reveal recent research trends, perspectives and implications of MPs presented in the field of water treatment. First, a bibliometric analysis, including spatial and temporal trends assessment, publication and keywords analysis, was conducted to offer insights into its development history and research trends. Next, keyword analysis on recent literature was conducted to examine the temporal and categorical patterns of high-frequency research trends. Then, based on keywords analysis, the research progress and hotspots of MPs research within the domain of water treatment were discussed as four categories: sampling and detection methods for aquatic MPs, MPs as carriers of contaminants upon exposure to water environment, the ecological pollution by MPs, and technology development for MPs removal. Finally, challenges of MPs in water treatment and future implications to existing research field were also presented.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Microplastics / Bibliometric analysis / Water treatment / Research hotspots

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CRediT Authorship Contribution Statement

Jiong Zhou: Conceptualization, Writing - Original Draft, Data Curation, Software, Formal analysis. Ao Shuai: Writing - Original Draft, Software, Formal analysis. Tongshuo Liu: Validation, Visualization. Shuxuan Lin: Formal analysis. Lin Li: Software. Hai Liang: Visualization. Yuntao Xin: Writing - Review & Editing. Qiang He: Conceptualization, Writing - Review & Editing. Caihong Liu: Conceptualization, Funding acquisition Writing - Review & Editing.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the financial support from Natural Science Foundation of Chongqing (China) (CSTB2023NSCQ-MSX1090), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 52100024), Chongqing Technological Innovation and Application Development Project (China) (CSTB2022TIAD-KPX0201) and Technological Innovation Project of Chongqing Water & Environment Holdings Group Ltd. (China) (KC2023-09). We also acknowledge the technical assistance from Analytical and Testing Center in Chongqing University, China.

Conflict of Interests

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-024-1917-z and is accessible for authorized users.

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