{
  "abstract": "Plastics have become an integral part of our modern society, largely because they are generally regarded as chemically inert under normal circumstances. However, plastics fragmented into microplastics (less than 5 mm in size) have recently raised significant public concerns, and have been detected widely across ecosystems and human tissues with increasing environmental and health risks¹⁻⁵. Here we show that commodity microplastics exhibit intrinsic physicochemical activity in water, manifested by the spontaneous generation of reactive oxygen species that increases with interfacial hydrophobicity and strongly correlates with interfacial electrostatics. Ab initio calculations support these observations and reveal that hydroxide oxidation becomes energetically more favourable at increasingly hydrophobic microplastic-water interfaces through the combined effects of partial solvation and electrostatics. These interfacial properties and the resulting oxidative chemistry have direct implications for biomolecular adsorption, protein aggregation, and even cellular damage. Together, our findings challenge the prevailing paradigm of plastic inertness, identify a possibly overlooked mechanism for the detrimental effects of microplastics on health and the environment, and contribute to a fundamental understanding of the structure-activity relationship of interfacial water, which may inform the design of safer and more sustainable plastic materials.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Department of Chemistry, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA. qn2120@columbia.edu.",
    "Kenneth S. Pitzer Theory Center and Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.",
    "Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA.",
    "Department of Chemistry, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.",
    "Department of Biomedical Engineering, James F. McKelvey School of Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA.",
    "Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, USA.",
    "Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, NY, USA.",
    "Kenneth S. Pitzer Theory Center and Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA. thg@berkeley.edu.",
    "Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA. thg@berkeley.edu.",
    "Department of Bioengineering and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA. thg@berkeley.edu.",
    "Department of Chemistry, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA. wm2256@columbia.edu.",
    "Department of Biomedical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA. wm2256@columbia.edu."
  ],
  "article_type": "research article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 12,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Naixin Qian"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1,
        2
      ],
      "name": "Ruoqi Zhao"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3
      ],
      "name": "Kwing Yeung Chan"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3
      ],
      "name": "Vinh Gia Vuong"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3
      ],
      "name": "Xin Gao",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-0911-3656"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3
      ],
      "name": "Zhilun Zhao",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-1058-8173"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1,
        2
      ],
      "name": "R Allen LaCour"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        4
      ],
      "name": "Yifan Dai",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-1009-5790"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5
      ],
      "name": "Phoebe A Stapleton",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-3049-4868"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        6
      ],
      "name": "Beizhan Yan",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-1321-779X"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        7,
        8,
        9
      ],
      "name": "Teresa Head-Gordon",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-0025-8987"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        10,
        11
      ],
      "name": "Wei Min",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-2570-3557"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/4ky1w6grabh4d.bib",
  "cited_by": 1,
  "doi": "10.1038/s41586-026-11141-y",
  "fulltext_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13668708",
  "id": "4ky1w6grabh4d",
  "issns": [
    "0028-0836",
    "1476-4687"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42875572",
  "language": "eng",
  "licence": "CC-BY-NC-ND",
  "licence_label": "CC BY-NC-ND",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "openalex",
      "2310|Microplastics and Plastic Pollution"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7221776748",
  "pdf_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13668708?pdf=render",
  "pmcid": "PMC13668708",
  "pmid": "42875572",
  "published": "2026-10-14",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/4ky1w6grabh4d.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:18:46Z",
      "native_id": "MED:42875572",
      "source": "europepmc",
      "url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42875572"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "earth",
      "origin": "openalex:2310|Microplastics and Plastic Pollution",
      "subfield": "environmental-science"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Intrinsic physicochemical activity at microplastic-water interfaces.",
  "title_text": "Intrinsic physicochemical activity at microplastic-water interfaces.",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:18:46Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/4ky1w6grabh4d",
  "venue": "Nature",
  "versions": []
}