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Plasmonic nanostructures for environmental monitoring and/or biological applications
Summary
This study used optical tweezer micro-Raman spectroscopy to identify and size-classify microplastics from a Chinese lake, and developed a plasmonic nanostructure system for detecting nanoplastics. Better detection tools for both micro- and nano-scale plastic particles are essential for accurately assessing environmental contamination and human exposure.
In this work, we have identified the size of microplastics collected from Shi Lake, China, using an optical tweezer micro-Raman spectroscopy (OTMRS) system. The microplastics were classified based on their size as products of degradation of large plastic material. Most of them were in the sub-20 μm regime. On the other hand, as nanoplastics may be more extensively distributed and hazardous than larger-sized plastics, their detection is a key point. Thus, we have designed a planar metamaterial structure and have studied the near-field enhancement in order to detect and analyze nanoplastics in aquatic environments with high sensitivity and selectivity. This study paves a way to improve our knowledge of small plastics abundance and pollution in freshwater around Shi Lake.