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Detection of environmental nanoplastics via surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy using high-density, ring-shaped nanogap arrays
Summary
Researchers developed a new sensor using gold films patterned with nanoscale ring-shaped gaps to detect plastic particles as small as 50 nanometers in water samples. The technique uses surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy and requires only tiny sample volumes with no complex preparation. The study represents a step toward practical, field-ready detection of nanoplastics in environmental water sources.
Micro- and nano-plastics (MNPs) are global contaminants of growing concern to the ecosystem and human health. In-the-field detection and identification of environmental micro- and nano-plastics (e-MNPs) is critical for monitoring the spread and effects of e-MNPs but is challenging due to the dearth of suitable analytical techniques, especially in the sub-micron size range. Here we show that thin gold films patterned with a dense, hexagonal array of ring-shaped nanogaps (RSNs) can be used as active substrates for the sensitive detection of micro- and nano-plastics by surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), requiring only small sample volumes and no significant sample preparation. By drop-casting 0.2-μL aqueous test samples onto the SERS substrates, 50-nm polystyrene (PS) nanoparticles could be determined via Raman spectroscopy at concentrations down to 1 μg/mL. The substrates were successfully applied to the detection and identification of ∼100-nm polypropylene e-MNPs in filtered drinking water and ∼100-nm polyethylene terephthalate (PET) e-MNPs in filtered wash-water from a freshly cleaned PET-based infant feeding bottle.