Intrinsic physicochemical activity at microplastic-water interfaces.
12 affiliations
- 1Department of Chemistry, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA. [email protected].
- 2Kenneth S. Pitzer Theory Center and Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
- 3Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA.
- 4Department of Chemistry, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
- 5Department of Biomedical Engineering, James F. McKelvey School of Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA.
- 6Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, USA.
- 7Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, NY, USA.
- 8Kenneth S. Pitzer Theory Center and Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA. [email protected].
- 9Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA. [email protected].
- 10Department of Bioengineering and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA. [email protected].
- 11Department of Chemistry, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA. [email protected].
- 12Department of Biomedical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA. [email protected].
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.
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BibTeX
@article{qian2026intrinsic,
title = {{Intrinsic physicochemical activity at microplastic-water interfaces.}},
author = {Naixin Qian and Ruoqi Zhao and Kwing Yeung Chan and Vinh Gia Vuong and Xin Gao and Zhilun Zhao and R Allen LaCour and Yifan Dai and Phoebe A Stapleton and Beizhan Yan and Teresa Head-Gordon and Wei Min},
journal = {Nature},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1038/s41586-026-11141-y},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42875572},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Intrinsic physicochemical activity at microplastic-water interfaces.
AU - Naixin Qian
AU - Ruoqi Zhao
AU - Kwing Yeung Chan
AU - Vinh Gia Vuong
AU - Xin Gao
AU - Zhilun Zhao
AU - R Allen LaCour
AU - Yifan Dai
AU - Phoebe A Stapleton
AU - Beizhan Yan
AU - Teresa Head-Gordon
AU - Wei Min
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/14
JO - Nature
DO - 10.1038/s41586-026-11141-y
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42875572
AB - 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.
SN - 0028-0836
SN - 1476-4687
ER -