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Fiber Laser-Backscattered Optofluidic Sensor for Ultrasensitive and Wide-Range Nanoplastic Quantification
Summary
Scientists have built a laser-based sensor that can detect and measure incredibly tiny plastic particles—called nanoplastics—in water, even at very low concentrations and across a wide range of sizes. This matters because nanoplastics are showing up everywhere, including in drinking water and our bodies, but they've been hard to detect and measure accurately; this new tool could make it easier to monitor plastic pollution in real time and better understand our actual exposure to it.
We report a fiber laser-backscattered optofluidic sensor (FLOS) for label-free, non-destructive quantification of nanoplastics (NPLs) from 20 nm to 1000 nm. A Mie-regime detection model reveals optimal sensitivity at 200 nm due to constructive interference of backward scattering modes. The sensor integrates a high-NA fiber probe (NA = 0.37) with a fiber-embedded optofluidic chip, achieving a limit of detection of 0.021 µg/mL for 200 nm polystyrene NPLs. Universal applicability to five polymer types and operational robustness in natural water matrices are demonstrated, establishing a new platform for on-site NPLs monitoring.