As the emerging contaminations in aqueous systems, micro- and nano-plastics (MNPs) have been widely found to exist in the environment and even in organisms, which potentially threatens the ecosystems and human health. However, the studies evaluating the removal of these particles, especially the nano-sized particles, are limited. Herein, this work investigated the extraction of polystyrene and polyethylene terephthalate nanoparticles from water using lignin-based hydrophobic deep eutectic solvents (DESs). The removal efficiency was calculated via the pyrolysis-gas chromatographyâmassspectrometry (Py-GC/MS). The removal kinetics was also evaluated. Moreover, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were applied to investigate the interaction among MNPs, water, and DES to reveal the removal mechanism. This work provides a possible solution to the recycling and reuse of MNPs as part of the grand challenge of plastic pollution.
