A new review maps how a class of weed-killing chemicals called phenylurea herbicides—widely used in farming worldwide—are accumulating across soils, water, and ecosystems far beyond the fields where they're sprayed, and evaluates which cleanup technologies actually work.
1
Phenylurea herbicides persist across multiple environmental compartments—soil, surface water, groundwater, and living organisms—due to their high mobility and resistance to natural breakdown.
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No single removal technology is fully effective; advanced oxidation, bioremediation, and adsorption each have significant trade-offs in cost, efficiency, and real-world applicability.
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Novel functional materials and synergistic treatment systems (combining two or more methods) represent the most promising emerging direction for remediation of phenylurea herbicide contamination.
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