Authors
Haoran Liu, Lena Ciric, Manpreet Bhatti
Published in
Environmental science and ecotechnology. Volume 34. Pages 100772. Epub Sep 23, 2026.
Abstract
Polyethylene accounts for the majority of terrestrial plastic waste, yet its chemical inertness resists natural decomposition in soil. Rhizoremediation offers a strategy that combines plant and microbe activity, but recalcitrant C-C backbones create a kinetic bottleneck that historically restricts plastic mass loss to under 3%. Here we show that engineered carbon nanomaterials prime the plant rhizosphere to breach this kinetic barrier, driving accelerated polyethylene biodegradation in soil. Multi-walled carbon nanotubes accelerated surface-layer breakdown, achieving 12.1% mass loss within 90 days, compared to less than 0.1% in abiotic controls and 0.6% in unamended soil. This nanomaterial-amended degradation was accompanied by a 97% reduction in tensile modulus, from 782.8 to 19.6 MPa, and surface oxidation, with the O 1 s/C 1s ratio increasing from 0.17 to 0.49. In deeper soil, graphene oxide sustains long-term degradation (5.8%) tightly synchronized with root penetration. Mechanistically, carbon nano-interfaces recruit pioneer degraders (Pseudolabrys and Rhodanobacter) and enrich metabolic pathways responsible for C-C bond cleavage (K00059) and intermediate detoxification (K00799). Crucially, the nanomaterials alleviate polyethylene-induced phytotoxicity, enhancing plant biomass and potentially supporting a plant-microbe interaction. These findings demonstrate that abiotic nano-interfaces can prime biological systems to dismantle persistent polymers, offering a scalable blueprint for managing soil plastic contamination.
PMID:
42834896
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 06 Oct 2026.
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