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Nanoplastic Identification and Quantification with Nanoelectromechanical System-Based Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy: NEMS-FTIR
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Researchers introduced NEMS-FTIR, a technique coupling nanoelectromechanical systems with Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, enabling rapid chemical identification of nanoplastic particles with picogram sensitivity and minimal sample preparation. Detecting nanoplastics at such small scales is a critical barrier to understanding their environmental and biological impacts, and this method addresses a major analytical gap.
The chemical analysis of nanoplastics remains a major analytical challenge due to their small size and low mass. Conventional techniques such as pyrolysis-GC/MS [1], IRlaser scanning spectroscopy [2], [3], or Raman spectroscopy [4] often require extensive sample preparation, long acquisition or scanning times, or lack sufficient sensitivity to detect nanoparticles. Recent work on dispersive nanomechanical infrared spectroscopy with quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) has enabled label-free chemical identification with picogram detection limits [5]. Here, we introduce a novel technique, NEMS-FTIR, that couples a nanoelectromechanical system (NEMS) with a commercial Fouriertransform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer for sensitive chemical analysis of nanoplastics. By combining high thermomechanical responsivity with the broad spectral range of FTIR, the presented NEMS-FTIR platform addresses a critical gap: enabling rapid, chemically specific detection of nanoplastic particles with picogram sensitivity and minimal sample preparation. The technique is based on photothermal infrared detection, where sample-specific IR absorption is detected through resonance shifts of a NEMS resonator (Fig. 1a). The NEMS devices are operated using EMILIE ${ }^{ ext{tM }}$, a commercial NEMS-FTIR analyser [6], as shown in Fig. 1b.
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