Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Measurement of the Effective Refractive Index of Suspensions Containing 5 µm Diameter Spherical Polystyrene Microparticles by Surface Plasmon Resonance and Scattering

This study used surface plasmon resonance combined with Mie scattering theory to measure the effective refractive index of suspensions containing 5 µm polystyrene microspheres, proposing this approach as a foundation for optical detection methods for microplastics in water.

2025 Chemosensors
Article Tier 2

RefractiveIndex of Benchmark Polystyrene Nanoplasticsby Optical Modeling of UV–Vis Spectra

Researchers measured UV-visible spectra of polystyrene nanobeads deposited on sapphire substrates and applied a new optical model based on Mie theory to determine the refractive index of polystyrene nanoplastics below 1 micrometre, bridging a critical gap in the optical characterisation of nanoplastic particles.

2025 Figshare
Article Tier 2

Direct Detection of Polystyrene Nanoplastics in Water Using High-sensitivity Surface-enhanced Raman Scattering with Ag Nanoarray Substrates

Researchers developed a fast, sensitive detection method using silver nanostructures and laser light scattering (surface-enhanced Raman scattering) to identify polystyrene nanoplastics in water at concentrations as low as 10 micrograms per milliliter, offering a practical tool for monitoring nanoplastic contamination in real-world water sources.

2025 Sensors and Materials
Article Tier 2

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy for the detection of microplastics

Researchers developed a surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy method using gold nanoparticles to detect polystyrene microplastics at concentrations as low as 6.5 micrograms per milliliter, offering a new tool for detecting sub-micron plastic pollutants in water.

2022 Applied Surface Science 140 citations
Article Tier 2

A powerful method for In Situ and rapid detection of trace nanoplastics in water—Mie scattering

Scientists developed a fast, on-site method for detecting nanoplastics in water using Mie scattering, a light-based technique that can identify polystyrene particles as small as 25 nanometers. When tested on commercial bottled water, nanoplastic concentrations of 0.07 to 0.39 micrograms per liter were found across five brands. This type of rapid detection tool is important for real-time monitoring of nanoplastic contamination in drinking water and assessing potential human health risks.

2024 Journal of Hazardous Materials 13 citations
Article Tier 2

Sensors for Polystyrene Nanoplastics Detection in Water Samples

This review assessed recent advances in sensor and biosensor technologies for detecting polystyrene nanoplastics in complex aquatic samples. The authors identified optical, electrochemical, and surface-enhanced Raman approaches as the most promising strategies, while highlighting the ongoing challenges of matrix interference and low-concentration detection limits.

2025 International Journal of Nanoelectronics and Materials (IJNeaM)
Article Tier 2

Quantitative and sensitive analysis of polystyrene nanoplastics down to 50 nm by surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy in water

Researchers developed a highly sensitive method using surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy to detect and quantify polystyrene nanoplastics as small as 50 nanometers in water samples. The technique achieved detection limits far below what conventional methods can measure, enabling the identification of nanoplastics at environmentally relevant concentrations. This advancement addresses a critical gap in nanoplastic monitoring, as most existing methods cannot reliably detect particles at such small sizes.

2022 Journal of Hazardous Materials 123 citations
Article Tier 2

Identification of polystyrene nanoplastics using surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy

Researchers demonstrated for the first time that surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) using silver nanoparticles can identify polystyrene nanoplastics as small as 50 nm in real water samples, providing a rapid detection method that bypasses conventional sample preparation and could advance environmental monitoring of nanoplastics previously invisible to standard analytical techniques.

2020 Talanta 207 citations
Clinical Trial Tier 1

Polarization transmission characteristics of polystyrene microplastics in aqueous environments

This study investigated how polarized light interacts with polystyrene microplastic particles suspended in water. While primarily a detection methods paper, it advances techniques for identifying microplastics in water and biological fluids like blood and urine, which is essential for accurately measuring human exposure levels.

2025 Optical Engineering
Article Tier 2

Numerical analysis and experimental verification of optical scattering from microplastics

This study used light scattering modelling (Mie theory) and a low-cost experimental setup to show that the angular pattern of scattered light carries distinct signatures of a microplastic particle's size and refractive index. The method offers a faster, cheaper route to characterising microplastics in water samples, which matters because accurate and scalable detection tools are a key bottleneck in assessing environmental exposure levels.

2023 Royal Society Open Science 10 citations
Article Tier 2

Measurements of the inherent optical properties of aqueous suspensions of microplastics

Researchers measured the inherent optical properties — including absorption and scattering coefficients — of aqueous microplastic suspensions at environmentally relevant concentrations, comparing different polymer types and particle sizes. The optical signatures varied substantially across polymers and sizes, providing reference data for developing optical remote sensing approaches to detect microplastics in surface waters.

2024 Limnology and Oceanography Letters 6 citations
Article Tier 2

Identification of Trace Polystyrene Nanoplastics Down to 50 nm by the Hyphenated Method of Filtration and Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy Based on Silver Nanowire Membranes

Researchers developed a method combining silver nanowire membrane filtration with surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy to detect trace polystyrene nanoplastics down to 50 nm in water, addressing a critical gap in nanoplastic analytical techniques.

2022 Environmental Science & Technology 155 citations
Article Tier 2

Exploring the Ultralow Limit of Detection for Aromatic/Hydrophobic Nanoplastics with Ultrasmall Size Enables an LSPR Optical Microfiber

Researchers developed an advanced optical microfiber sensor capable of detecting nanoplastics at ultra-low concentrations, significantly surpassing the sensitivity of existing detection methods. The sensor uses localized surface plasmon resonance to identify aromatic and hydrophobic nanoplastic particles of extremely small sizes. The technology could enable early environmental monitoring of nanoplastic contamination in real-world water samples where current methods fall short.

2026 Analytical Chemistry
Article Tier 2

Nanostructured Raman substrates for the sensitive detection of submicrometer-sized plastic pollutants in water

Researchers developed nanostar-dimer-embedded nanopore substrates for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and showed they can detect submicron polystyrene microplastic particles as small as 0.4 micrometers at concentrations of 50 ppm within minutes and without sample pretreatment, offering a sensitive and rapid analytical tool for detecting the smallest plastic pollutants in water.

2020 Journal of Hazardous Materials 149 citations
Article Tier 2

Breaking the Size Barrier: SERS-Based Ultrasensitive Detection and Quantification of Polystyrene Plastics in Real Water Samples

Researchers developed a surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) method capable of detecting and quantifying polystyrene plastic particles of various sizes — including nanoplastics — in real environmental water samples at ultrasensitive concentrations.

2025 Analytical Chemistry
Article Tier 2

Engineering Branched Au@Ag Nanostar Plasmonic Array for Coupling Electromagnetic Enhancement and SERS Trace Detection of Polystyrene in Aquatic Environments

Researchers engineered a branched gold-silver nanostar array as a surface-enhanced Raman scattering substrate for detecting polystyrene micro- and nanoplastics in water. The hydrophobic sensor achieved sensitive detection of polystyrene particles at concentrations as low as 2.5 micrograms per milliliter with a nearly linear concentration-intensity relationship, and was successfully applied to environmental water samples including tap water, seawater, and soil water.

2023 Chemosensors 8 citations
Article Tier 2

Determination of Polystyrene Nanoparticles in Aqueous Solutions by Dual-Beam Thermal Lens Spectrometry

Researchers demonstrated that thermal lens spectrometry can detect polystyrene nanoparticles as small as 65 and 80 nanometers in water at very low concentrations, down to 0.0005 mg/L. The technique also revealed how increasing nanoparticle concentrations change the thermal properties of the water in a nonlinear way. The study suggests thermal lens spectrometry could be a sensitive, practical tool for monitoring nanoplastic contamination in aquatic environments.

2024 Journal of Analytical Chemistry 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Quantification of Very Low Concentrations of Colloids with Light Scattering Applied to Micro(Nano)Plastics in Seawater

Researchers evaluated static and dynamic light scattering techniques for detecting and quantifying colloidal microplastic and nanoplastic particles (0.1-0.8 micron diameter) at very low concentrations in marine water, demonstrating their potential as rapid, non-destructive monitoring tools.

2023 Microplastics 4 citations
Article Tier 2

Measurement of Low Concentration of Micro-Plastics by Detection of Bioaffinity-Induced Particle Retention Using Surface Plasmon Resonance Biosensors

Researchers used surface plasmon resonance biosensors coated with biological recognition molecules to detect microplastics at low concentrations in water, demonstrating a sensitive and label-free detection approach that could be adapted for real-time environmental monitoring.

2021 Biosensors 40 citations
Article Tier 2

Refractive Index of Benchmark Polystyrene Nanoplastics by Optical Modeling of UV–Vis Spectra

The refractive index of benchmark polystyrene nanoplastics was precisely measured using optical methods, providing a fundamental physical parameter needed for accurate optical detection and sizing of nanoplastics. Reliable optical constants for nanoplastics improve the accuracy of light-scattering-based detection instruments.

2025 Analytical Chemistry 1 citations
Article Tier 2

On optical sensing of surface roughness of flat and curved microplastics in water

Researchers developed and tested an optical sensor prototype capable of detecting microplastic particles of different shapes and surface textures in water by measuring light reflection patterns. The sensor offers a potential path to faster, in-situ microplastic detection without requiring chemical analysis.

2020 Chemosphere 25 citations
Article Tier 2

Superhydrophobic Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) Substrates for Sensitive Detection of Trace Nanoplastics in Water

Researchers developed a new method to detect extremely small nanoplastics in water by combining a water-repelling surface that concentrates particles with a technique called SERS that amplifies their chemical signal. The method can identify common nanoplastics like polystyrene and PMMA at very low concentrations, which is an important step toward monitoring these tiny pollutants that are difficult to detect with current tools.

2025 Analytical Chemistry 30 citations
Article Tier 2

Continuous Sizing and Identification of Microplastics in Water

Researchers developed a proof-of-concept method for simultaneously determining the size and material type of microplastic particles in water using combined elastic and inelastic light scattering. The technique pairs Mie scattering for sizing with Raman scattering for material identification, enabling continuous characterization of microplastics in a single measurement step.

2023 Sensors 15 citations
Article Tier 2

A metal-insulator-metal waveguide-based plasmonic refractive index sensor for the detection of nanoplastics in water

Researchers designed a light-based sensor using a metal-insulator-metal waveguide and square-ring resonator that can detect nanoplastics in water at extremely low concentrations by measuring tiny changes in how light bends through the sample. The optimized sensor achieved a sensitivity of 2700 nm/RIU, making it a promising tool for detecting minute levels of plastic contamination in water.

2024 Scientific Reports 18 citations