Bioinspired Artificial Plant for Deep Soil Heavy Metal Remediation

Soil contamination by heavy metals (HMs) is a growing environmental concern, threatening ecosystems and human health. However, the compact and heterogeneous soil severely restricts water and ion transport, limiting remediation efficiency especially in deeper layers. In addition, the high mobility of HMs causes downward migration, making efficient deep soil remediation particularly challenging. Here, by mimicking the transpiration and selective adsorption of plants, we present a bioinspired aligned porous chitosan/modified activated carbon aerogel (BAMC) to overcome long treatment duration and limited penetration depth (< 1 m) of conventional phytoremediation. The BAMC couples low-tortuosity channels for directional mass transfer, solar-driven evaporation for convective ion migration, and nanoscale active sites for effective adsorption, enabling efficient remediation in deeper soils. Our system exhibits a high solar evaporation rate of ∼3.36 kg·m^-2·h^-1 under 1 sun with enhanced Cu²⁺ adsorption capacity of 139.2 mg·g^-1, achieving up to 70.2% removal within 7 days. Notably, it demonstrated effective remediation at a depth of ∼1.5 m, surpassing conventional phytoremediation limits. Such artificial plant system provides an environment-friendly, high-efficiency, and scalable strategy for persistent deep soil heavy metal remediation.