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Scalable trapping of single nanosized extracellular vesicles using plasmonics
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Researchers developed a new trapping system called geometry-induced electrohydrodynamic tweezers (GET) that can quickly capture individual nanoscale extracellular vesicles — tiny particles released by cells that carry biological signals — using electric fields and light-based plasmonic traps, completing captures in seconds rather than tens of minutes. Beyond medical diagnostics, the technology shows promise for characterizing nanoplastics at the single-particle level.
Heterogeneous nanoscale extracellular vesicles (EVs) are of significant interest for disease detection, monitoring, and therapeutics. However, trapping these nano-sized EVs using optical tweezers has been challenging due to their small size. Plasmon-enhanced optical trapping offers a solution. Nevertheless, existing plasmonic tweezers have limited throughput and can take tens of minutes for trapping for low particle concentrations. Here, we present an innovative approach called geometry-induced electrohydrodynamic tweezers (GET) that overcomes these limitations. GET generates multiple electrohydrodynamic potentials, allowing parallel transport and trapping of single EVs within seconds. By integrating nanoscale plasmonic cavities at the center of each GET trap, single EVs can be placed near plasmonic cavities, enabling instant plasmon-enhanced optical trapping upon laser illumination without detrimental heating effects. These non-invasive scalable hybrid nanotweezers open new horizons for high-throughput tether-free plasmon-enhanced single EV trapping and spectroscopy. Other potential areas of impact include nanoplastics characterization, and scalable hybrid integration for quantum photonics.
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Scalable trapping of single nanosized extracellular vesicles using plasmonics
AI summary Read the abstract
Researchers developed a plasmonic nanotweezers system capable of stably trapping individual nanosized extracellular vesicles, overcoming the diffraction limit of conventional optical tweezers and enabling characterization of heterogeneous nanoparticle populations relevant to disease diagnostics.
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Researchers developed a nanoscale trapping device that uses electrical forces to precisely capture and sort tiny particles, including nanoplastics, for detection and analysis. The technology works at low voltages and could be integrated into portable biosensors for rapid environmental monitoring. While primarily a technology advance, this kind of tool could improve our ability to detect and measure the nanoplastic particles that are most likely to enter the human body.
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Researchers used optical tweezers to study how microparticles cross lipid membrane barriers in giant vesicles, a model for cell membranes. Understanding how particles at the microscale penetrate biological membranes is directly relevant to how microplastics may enter cells and tissues in living organisms.
Detection of microplastics and nanoplastics: Are Raman tweezers and enhanced Raman methods the solution for sub 20 μm particles?
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Raman tweezers — devices that use a laser beam to trap and analyze individual particles — combined with plasmonic enhancement techniques can detect and characterize nanoplastics and microplastics smaller than 20 µm, a size range that defeats most conventional filtration-based detection methods. Improving detection sensitivity for the smallest plastic particles is critical because nanoplastics are thought to be the most biologically active fraction, capable of crossing cell membranes and accumulating in tissues.
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