Abstract
Nanoplastic (NP) contamination in water intended for human consumption will require efficient, environmentally friendly, and cost-effective NP-removal methods. This study evaluates the use of native wood membranes to filter NPs from freshwater using a pressure-driven process. The performance of the filter was assessed for different wood species, membrane thicknesses and filtration cycles, by measuring NP retention efficiency and NP deposition in the wood membranes. Retention efficiency varied widely between species. After a single filtration cycle, spruce, a common softwood species, reduced NP concentrations by approximately 90%, while poplar, a hardwood, only reduced NP concentrations by ~20%. These differences are linked to microstructural differences between soft- and hardwood tissues. Increased membrane thickness and repeated filtration further enhanced NP retention in all conditions. This work demonstrates that native softwood membranes (i.e., without chemical modification) can be used in low-pressure filtration systems to remove NPs.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
The mass of Pd-NP eluted from wood membranes and the mass of Pd-NP deposited in wood membranes are available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18890309. The following data repository: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18890309 contains the mass of Pd-NP eluted from wood membranes and the mass of Pd-NP deposited in wood membranes.
References
Glassmeyer, S. T. et al. Nationwide reconnaissance of contaminants of emerging concern in source and treated drinking waters of the United States. Sci. Total Environ. 581, 909–922 (2017).
Koelmans, A. A. et al. Microplastics in freshwaters and drinking water: critical review and assessment of data quality. Water Res. 155, 410–422 (2019).
Tröger, R. et al. What’s in the water? - Target and suspect screening of contaminants of emerging concern in raw water and drinking water from Europe and Asia. Water Res. 198, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2021.117099 (2021).
Landebrit, L. et al. Small microplastics have much higher mass concentrations than large microplastics at the surface of nine major European rivers. Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res. 32, 10050–10065 (2025).
Xu, Y. H., Ou, Q., Jiao, M., Liu, G. & van der Hoek, J. P. Identification and quantification of nanoplastics in surface water and groundwater by pyrolysis gas chromatography-Mass Spectrometry. Environ. Sci. Technol. 56, 4988–4997 (2022).
Swietlik, J. & Magnucka, M. Aging of drinking water transmission pipes during long-term operation as a potential source of nano- and microplastics. Int. J. Hygiene Environ. Health 263, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheh.2024.114467 (2025).
Gigault, J. et al. Nanoplastics are neither microplastics nor engineered nanoparticles. Nat. Nanotechnol. 16, 501–507 (2021).
Ivleva, N. P. Chemical analysis of microplastics and nanoplastics: challenges, advanced methods, and perspectives. Chem. Rev. 121, 11886–11936 (2021).
Omidikia, N., Niemann, H., Noto, H. O. & Holzinger, R. Detecting polystyrene nanoparticles in environmental samples: a comprehensive quantitative approach based on TD-PTR-MS and multivariate standard addition. ACS ES&T Water 5, 5037–5044 (2025).
Rosario-Ortiz, F., Rose, J., Speight, V., Von Gunten, U. & Schnoor, J. How do you like your tap water? Science 351, 912–914 (2016).
Ganie, Z. A., Khandelwal, N., Tiwari, E., Singh, N. & Darbha, G. K. Biochar-facilitated remediation of nanoplastic contaminated water: effect of pyrolysis temperature induced surface modifications. J. Hazardous Mater. 417, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.126096 (2021).
Arenas, L. R., Gentile, S. R., Zimmermann, S. & Stoll, S. Nanoplastics adsorption and removal efficiency by granular activated carbon used in drinking water treatment process. Sci. Total Environ. 791, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.148175 (2021).
Pulido-Reyes, G. et al. Nanoplastics removal during drinking water treatment: laboratory- and pilot-scale experiments and modeling. J. Hazardous Mater. 436, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2022.129011 (2022).
Bodzek, M. & Pohl, A. Possibilities of removing microplastics from the aquatic environment using membrane processes. Desalin. Water Treat 288, 104–120 (2023).
Wan, H. Y. et al. Removal of polystyrene nanoplastic beads using gravity-driven membrane filtration: mechanisms and effects of water matrices. Chem. Eng. J. 450, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2022.138484 (2022).
Li, M., Huang, G., Wang, S., Huang, J. & Xu, Z. Development of hydroxyapatite-enhanced membrane for nanoplastics removal: multiple scenarios and mechanism exploration. J. Hazardous Mater. 495, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2025.138781 (2025).
Jiang, M. et al. A bio-based nanofibre hydrogel filter for sustainable water purification. Nat. Sustain. 7, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-023-01264-9 (2024).
Yuan, F., Yue, L. Z., Zhao, H. & Wu, H. F. Study on the adsorption of polystyrene microplastics by three-dimensional reduced graphene oxide. Water Sci. Technol. 81, 2163–2175 (2020).
Dey, T. K., Fan, L. H., Bhuiyan, M. & Pramanik, B. K. Evaluating the performance of the metal organic framework-based ultrafiltration membrane for nanoplastics removal. Separat. Purif. Technol. 353, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seppur.2024.128658 (2025).
Zhang, Y. H. et al. Improving nanoplastic removal by coagulation: Impact mechanism of particle size and water chemical conditions. J. Hazardous Mater. 425, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.127962 (2022).
Lapointe, M. & Barbeau, B. Substituting polyacrylamide with an activated starch polymer during ballasted flocculation. J. Water Process Eng. 28, 129–134 (2019).
Suter, F., Steubing, B. & Hellweg, S. Life cycle impacts and benefits of wood along the value chain: the case of Switzerland. J. Ind. Ecol. 21, 874–886 (2017).
Garemark, J. et al. Advancing hydrovoltaic energy harvesting from wood through cell wall nanoengineering. Adv. Funct. Mater. 33, https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202208933 (2023).
Wang, Z. et al. A wood-polypyrrole composite as a photothermal conversion device for solar evaporation enhancement. J. Mater. Chem. A 7, 20706–20712 (2019).
Ritter, M., Stricker, L., Burgert, I. & Panzarasa, G. Chemiluminescent wood. Carbohydr. Polym. 339, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.carbpol.2024.122166 (2024).
Boutilier, M. S. H., Lee, J. H., Chambers, V., Venkatesh, V. & Karnik, R. Water filtration using plant Xylem. PLoS ONE 9, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0089934 (2014).
Lindstrom, H. Fiber length, tracheid diameter, and latewood percentage in Norway spruce: development from pith outwards. Wood Fiber Sci. 29, 21–34 (1997).
Buksnowitz, C., Teischinger, A., Grabner, M., Müller, U. & Mahn, L. Tracheid length in norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) analysis of three databases regarding tree age, cambial age, tree height, inter-annual variation, radial distance to pith and log qualities. Wood Res. 55, 1–13 (2010).
Burgert, I. in Materials Design Inspired by Nature: Function through Inner Architecture RSC Smart Materials (eds P. Fratzl, J. W. C. Dunlop, & R. Weinkamer) 128–150 (Royal Society of Chemistry 2013).
Mitrano, D. M. et al. Synthesis of metal-doped nanoplastics and their utility to investigate fate and behaviour in complex environmental systems. Nat. Nanotechnol. 14, 362 (2019).
Plötze, M. & Niemz, P. Porosity and pore size distribution of different wood types as determined by mercury intrusion porosimetry. Eur. J. Wood Wood Prod. 69, 649–657 (2011).
Pradel, A. et al. Deposition of environmentally relevant nanoplastic models in sand during transport experiments. Chemosphere 255, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.126912 (2020).
Bradford, S. A., Torkzaban, S. & Walker, S. L. Coupling of physical and chemical mechanisms of colloid straining in saturated porous media. Water Res. 41, 3012–3024 (2007).
Pradel, A., Delouche, N., Gigault, J. & Tabuteau, H. Role of ripening in the deposition of fragments: the case of micro- and nanoplastics. Environ. Sci. Technol. 58, 8878–8888 (2024).
Vani, N., Escudier, S., Jeong, D. H. & Sauret, A. Role of the constriction angle on the clogging by bridging of suspensions of particles. Phys. Rev. Res. 6, https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.6.L032060 (2024).
Okaybi, W., Roman, S. & Soulaine, C. Progressive colloidal clogging mechanism by dendritic build-up in porous media. Soft Matter 21, 5687–5698 (2025).
EPA, U. Water Treatment Manual: Filtration (Environmental Protection Agency, 2020).
Bossert, D. et al. Size and surface charge dependent impregnation of nanoparticles in soft- and hardwood. Chem.-Switz. 2, 361–373 (2020).
Tufenkji, N. & Elimelech, M. Breakdown of colloid filtration theory: role of the secondary energy minimum and surface charge heterogeneities. Langmuir 21, 841–852 (2005).
Molina, S., Ocaña-Biedma, H., Rodríguez-Sáez, L. & Landaburu-Aguirre, J. Experimental evaluation of the process performance of MF and UF membranes for the removal of nanoplastics. Membranes 13, https://doi.org/10.3390/membranes13070683 (2023).
Jiao, M. L. et al. Highly efficient water treatment via a wood-based and reusable filter. Acs Mater. Lett. 2, 430–437 (2020).
Vitas, S., Keplinger, T., Reichholf, N., Figi, R. & Cabane, E. Functional lignocellulosic material for the remediation of copper(II) ions from water: towards the design of a wood filter. J. Hazard. Mater. 355, 119–127 (2018).
Che, W. B. et al. Wood-based mesoporous filter decorated with silver nanoparticles for water purification. ACS Sustain. Chem. Eng. 7, 5134–5141 (2019).
Xing, Y., Chen, X., Chen, X. & Zhuang, J. Colloid-mediated transport of pharmaceutical and personal care products through porous media. Sci. Rep. 6, 35407 (2016).
Novikov, A. P. et al. Colloid transport of plutonium in the far-field of the Mayak Production Association. Russ. Sci. 314, 638–641 (2006).
Patera, A., Bonnin, A. & Mokso, R. Micro- and nano-scales three-dimensional characterisation of softwood. J. Imaging 7, https://doi.org/10.3390/jimaging7120263 (2021).
Weber, C. I. in Methods for Measuring the Acute Toxicity of Effluents and Receiving Waters to Freshwater and Marine Organisms, Environmental Monitoring Systems Laboratory 32–36 (Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2002).
Pradel, A., Hufenus, R., Schneebeli, M. & Mitrano, D. M. Impact of contaminant size and density on their incorporation into sea ice. Nat. Commun. 16, 4375 (2025).
Odic, F., Pradel, A., Schneebeli, M. & Mitrano, D. M. Frazil ice formation causes divergent levels of microplastic and nanoplastic accumulation in sea ice. Environ. Sci. Technol. Lett. 12, 655–660 (2025).
Acknowledgements
W.Y. acknowledges funding from an ETH Zurich Career Seed Grant 1-009041. A.P. was funded by the ETH Postdoctoral Fellowship and the Rütli Foundation. D.M.M. was funded through the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), grant number PCEFP2_186856. M.R. thanks Katharina Heider for the invaluable discussions on micro- and nanoplastic contamination, which served as inspiration for this work. We acknowledge Dan Vivas Glaser for his help with sample preparation and Thomas Schnider for wood cutting. We thank Prof. Dr. Ingo Burgert (ETH Zürich) for his continuous support.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
M.R. and A.P. contributed equally to this work. W.Y., M.R., A.P., and D.M.M. contributed to the conception of the study, the experimental design, and the writing of the manuscript. W.Y., M.R., and A.P. were responsible for the planning, organization, and execution of experiments.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Peer review
Peer review information
Communications Earth and Environment thanks Scott A. Sinquefield and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Primary Handling Editors: Ta Yeong Wu and Somaparna Ghosh. A peer review file is available.
Additional information
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary information
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
About this article
Cite this article
Pradel, A., Ritter, M., Yan, W. et al. Water filtration using softwood membranes provides a nature-based solution for nanoplastic removal. Commun Earth Environ (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-026-03469-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-026-03469-0
