Environment Scientists have invented a wild way to remove plastic pollution from our oceans with egg whites: ‘99% efficiency’

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Egg whites are great for building muscle and lowering cholesterol, but it turns out that they have benefits far beyond the kitchen.

Researchers at Princeton Engineering last year found a way to turn your breakfast food into a new material that can cheaply remove microplastics from our oceans.

Microplastics are tiny plastic particles that result from both commercial product development and the breakdown of larger plastics. They can find their way into our food and water, causing a variety of health problems. They’re also everywhere — it’s estimated that there are more than 24 trillion pieces in our oceans.

Using regular, store-bought egg whites, the team at Princeton created an aerogel, which is a lightweight material that can be used for water filtration, energy storage, and thermal insulation. The idea for this process came during lunch, as Craig Arnold, the vice dean of innovation at Princeton, was eating a sandwich.

“I was sitting there, staring at the bread in my sandwich. And I thought to myself, ‘This is exactly the kind of structure that we need,’” Arnold told Phys.org.

 
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