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Measuring nanoparticles in liquid with attogram resolution using a microfabricated glass suspended microchannel resonator
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Researchers built a miniature glass device called a suspended microchannel resonator that can weigh individual nanoparticles — including plastic particles as small as 243 nm — as they flow through a liquid channel, achieving detection limits of 377 attograms (trillionths of a millionth of a gram), enabling precise measurement of nanoplastics and other tiny particles.
The use of nanoparticles has been growing in various industrial fields, and concerns about their effects on health and the environment have been increasing. Hence, characterization techniques for nanoparticles are essential. Here, we present a silicon dioxide microfabricated suspended microchannel resonator (SMR) to measure the mass and concentration of nanoparticles in a liquid as they flow. We measured the mass detection limits of the device using laser Doppler vibrometry. This limit reached a minimum of 377 ag that correspond to a 34 nm diameter gold nanoparticle or a 243 nm diameter polystyrene particle, when sampled every 30 ms. We compared the fundamental limits of the measured data with an ideal noiseless measurement of the SMR. Finally, we measured the buoyant mass of gold nanoparticles in real-time as they flowed through the SMR.
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Researchers developed a multi-technique approach combining standard micro-Raman spectroscopy with atomic force microscopy to characterize nanoplastics as small as 25 nm, achieving a mass detection limit of 8.6 attograms and demonstrating the capability to obtain single-particle spectra from sub-30 nm polystyrene nanoparticles.
Overcoming resolution limitations: Spectroscopy of sub-30 nm nanoplastics
AI summary Read the abstract
Researchers developed a multi-technique approach combining standard micro-Raman spectroscopy with atomic force microscopy to characterize nanoplastics as small as 25 nm, achieving a mass detection limit of 8.6 attograms and demonstrating the capability to obtain single-particle spectra from sub-30 nm polystyrene nanoparticles.
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An acoustofluidic device using piezoelectric resonance was developed to concentrate sparse particles including microplastics onto a sensor surface for nanogram-scale mass measurements, offering a compact platform for rapid in-field analysis of microplastic concentrations in environmental water samples.
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When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.