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Light-Programmable Nanograspers for Rapid Nanoplastics Detection in Biological Fluids
Summary
Scientists developed a new tool that can quickly detect tiny plastic particles (nanoplastics) in blood and other body fluids using special light-controlled "nanograspers" that grab and identify the particles. This matters because nanoplastics from pollution can get into our bodies, but until now it was very hard to find and measure them in blood samples. The new method could help doctors and researchers better understand how plastic pollution affects human health.
Rapid and reliable detection of nanoplastics and other analytes in complex biological and environmental media is very important for public health management and environment protection but there is still a lack of effective methods. Here, we report optoelectronic-tweezer-assisted nanograspers (OET-NGP), a reconfigurable trapping system that dynamically assembles metallic nanoparticles into light-programmable grasping structures. This approach enables not only rapid analyte enrichment but also the formation of highly uniform hotspots with improved Surface-Enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) reproducibility, achieving a detection limit as low as 4.43 × 10-8 M for Rhodamine B. More importantly, the OET-NGP platform enables in situ capture and SERS detection of nanoplastics at μg/mL level in both aqueous media and serum. These results highlight the capability and great promise of OET-NGP as a powerful sensing tool for effective nanoplastic detection with great potential for environmental monitoring and biosafety assessment.
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