Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Characterization of Nile Red-Stained Microplastics through Fluorescence Spectroscopy

This study tested a method for detecting microplastics using a fluorescent dye called Nile Red, which makes plastic particles glow under certain light. The researchers found that different types of plastic produce distinct glow patterns, which could help scientists identify what kind of plastic they are looking at. Better detection tools like this are important for tracking microplastic contamination in the environment and understanding human exposure.

2024 Journal of Marine Science and Engineering 12 citations
Article Tier 2

Exploring the potential of photoluminescence spectroscopy in combination with Nile Red staining for microplastic detection

Researchers explored photoluminescence spectroscopy combined with Nile Red staining as a cost- and time-efficient detection method for microplastics, evaluating improvements to existing fluorescence microscopy approaches for more reliable global monitoring of microplastic abundance.

2020 Marine Pollution Bulletin 86 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic detection and identification by Nile red staining: Towards a semi-automated, cost- and time-effective technique

Researchers developed a semi-automated, cost-effective method for microplastic detection using Nile red fluorescent staining, showing it can significantly reduce the time and expense of identifying microplastics compared to traditional spectroscopic approaches.

2022 The Science of The Total Environment 176 citations
Article Tier 2

Analyzing microplastics with Nile Red: Emerging trends, challenges, and prospects

This review evaluates the Nile Red staining technique as an analytical method for identifying and quantifying microplastics in environmental samples. The study concludes that while Nile Red has emerged as a viable low-cost alternative to visual identification for microplastics research, not everything that fluoresces is plastic, so additional spectroscopic analysis is needed to validate results.

2021 Journal of Hazardous Materials 273 citations
Article Tier 2

Dyeing to Know: Optimizing Solvents for Nile Red Fluorescence in Microplastics Analysis

Researchers investigated how the choice of solvent affects Nile Red fluorescence staining for microplastic identification, optimizing solvent conditions to improve the reliability of fluorescence-based classification of microplastic polymer types in environmental samples.

2024
Article Tier 2

Analysis of selective fluorescence for the characterization of microplastic fibers: Use of a Nile Red-based analytical method to compare between natural and synthetic fibers

Researchers developed a Nile Red fluorescence method to distinguish natural from synthetic microplastic fibers, demonstrating that selective fluorescence staining combined with spectral analysis can improve identification accuracy for fiber-type microplastics across different environments.

2022 Journal of Hazardous Materials 22 citations
Article Tier 2

A rapid-screening approach to detect and quantify microplastics based on fluorescent tagging with Nile Red

Researchers developed a rapid fluorescent screening method using Nile Red dye to detect and quantify microplastics in environmental samples, finding it significantly faster than conventional methods while maintaining reasonable accuracy.

2017 Scientific Reports 897 citations
Article Tier 2

Dyeing to Know: Optimizing Solvents for Nile Red Fluorescence in Microplastics Analysis

Researchers investigated how solvent choice influences Nile Red fluorescence staining for microplastic detection, optimizing conditions for polarity-dependent fluorescence to enable more accurate polymer classification in large-scale environmental microplastic sampling.

2024
Article Tier 2

Nile Red Staining as a Subsidiary Method for Microplastic Quantifica-tion: A Comparison of Three Solvents and Factors Influencing Application Reliability

This study evaluated Nile Red fluorescent staining as a method for quantifying microplastics in environmental samples, comparing it to traditional identification techniques. The approach can help distinguish microplastics from organic particles more quickly and cost-effectively, supporting higher-throughput microplastic analysis in environmental monitoring programs.

2017 SDRP Journal of Earth Sciences & Environmental Studies 38 citations
Article Tier 2

Identification and quantification of microplastics using Nile Red staining

Researchers tested Nile Red staining as a method for identifying and quantifying microplastics in environmental samples, finding it useful for rapid screening but noting limitations in distinguishing plastics from non-plastic particles.

2016 Marine Pollution Bulletin 579 citations
Article Tier 2

Nile Red staining for the detection of microplastics: a comprehensive study on the emission spectra

This study systematically characterized how Nile Red fluorescence spectra vary across different polymer types, pigments, weathering states, and surface roughness, providing a more comprehensive reference for using Nile Red staining to identify microplastics in environmental samples.

2023 Research Square (Research Square) 8 citations
Article Tier 2

Nile Red lifetime reveals microplastic identity

Researchers developed a fluorescence lifetime imaging approach using the dye Nile Red that can distinguish microplastic particles from biological and mineral debris based on their distinct fluorescence lifetimes, offering faster and more specific microplastic identification than conventional methods.

2020 Environmental Science Processes & Impacts 63 citations
Article Tier 2

Development of an Inexpensive and Comparable Microplastic Detection Method Using Fluorescent Staining with Novel Nile Red Derivatives

Researchers developed an inexpensive fluorescent staining method using novel Nile Red derivatives for microplastic detection, validating it by measuring microplastics in German wastewater treatment plant effluent over one year with improved precision and selectivity.

2023 Analytica—A Journal of Analytical Chemistry and Chemical Analysis 41 citations
Article Tier 2

The potential of fluorescent dyes—comparative study of Nile red and three derivatives for the detection of microplastics

Researchers compared Nile red and three newly developed fluorescent dye derivatives for staining microplastics, finding that the derivatives achieved greater selectivity for plastic particles and more intense fluorescence than standard Nile red, improving detection sensitivity.

2021 Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry 106 citations
Article Tier 2

Exploring Nile Red staining as an analytical tool for surface-oxidized microplastics

Scientists evaluated Nile Red, a fluorescent dye commonly used to detect microplastics, and found it works differently depending on whether microplastics have been weathered by the environment. Surface oxidation from aging in the environment changes how well the dye sticks to plastics, which means current detection methods may be undercounting weathered microplastics in environmental samples.

2025 Environmental Research 11 citations
Article Tier 2

Assessment of microplastics using microfluidic approach

Researchers developed a microfluidic chip-based method using Nile red fluorescent staining to detect and count microplastic particles, offering a faster and less expensive alternative to conventional microscopy and spectroscopy approaches for environmental monitoring.

2022 Environmental Geochemistry and Health 28 citations
Article Tier 2

Rapid detection of microplastic contamination using Nile red fluorescent tagging

Researchers developed a rapid microplastic detection method using Nile Red (NR) fluorescent staining combined with zinc chloride density-based extraction and filtration for analysis of coastal marine sediment samples. The approach was cross-validated against conventional light microscopy, demonstrating improved speed and sensitivity for identifying microplastics of various sizes in environmental sediment matrices.

2024 International Journal of Biosciences (IJB)
Article Tier 2

Optimization of sample preparation, fluorescence- and Raman techniques for environmental microplastics

Researchers optimized methods for preparing and analyzing environmental microplastic samples using fluorescence staining with Nile Red dye and Raman spectroscopy. The study found that while fluorescence can broadly categorize plastics as polar or non-polar, Raman spectroscopy with a deep-UV laser was needed to reliably identify all polymer types, including those pigmented with carbon black.

2024 Spectrochimica Acta Part A Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy 19 citations
Article Tier 2

A Simple Spectral Method for Nanoplastic Identification and Characterisation

Researchers developed a fluorescence mapping method using Nile Red staining to locate, quantify, and identify polystyrene and polyethylene terephthalate nanoplastics down to 60 nm in size, overcoming the diffraction limits of conventional spectroscopy. Verification by scanning electron microscopy confirmed the technique can resolve individual nanoplastics of different types and sizes in complex real-world samples containing contaminant and additive nanoparticles.

2024 Research Square (Research Square) 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Modification of fluorescence staining method for small-sized microplastic quantification: Focus on the interference exclusion and exposure time optimization

Researchers optimized a Nile Red/DAPI fluorescence co-staining method for quantifying small microplastics, identifying key interference factors and exposure time parameters that significantly improve accuracy of microplastic detection.

2023 Environmental Science and Pollution Research 11 citations
Article Tier 2

Rapid detection of nanoplastics and small microplastics by Nile-Red staining and flow cytometry

Researchers developed a rapid method for detecting nanoplastics and small microplastics by combining Nile-Red fluorescent staining with flow cytometry. The technique can quantify plastic particles in the 0.6 to 15 micrometer range in just 90 seconds, which is hundreds of times faster than conventional spectroscopic methods. The approach showed high detection efficiency for polyethylene, polyvinylchloride, and polystyrene, offering a practical tool for environmental nanoplastic monitoring.

2022 Environmental Chemistry Letters 65 citations
Article Tier 2

Determination of microplastics in sediment by Nile red dye

Researchers evaluated Nile red dye staining combined with fluorescent microscopy, FTIR spectroscopy, and XRD analysis for identifying microplastics in Sava River sediment, finding the method useful for increasing particle visibility but insufficiently reliable on its own for complete polymer identification, with coagulation artifacts observed post-staining.

2025 Repository of the Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb
Article Tier 2

Influence of intrinsic plastics characteristics on Nile Red staining and fluorescence

Researchers evaluated Nile Red fluorescent staining performance on 60 plastic particles from sandy beaches, finding that polymer type, weathering degree, and crystallinity did not significantly affect fluorescence intensity, but particle color did — with blue, green, and red particles showing lower fluorescence and white, yellow, and orange particles showing higher fluorescence. The findings suggest that plastic pigments interfere with Nile Red detection, complicating standardization of microplastic identification methods.

2023 Journal of Sea Research 5 citations
Article Tier 2

Fluorescent technique to detect microplastics in a natural matrix using Methylene blue and Nile red

Researchers tested methylene blue fluorescent staining as a low-cost technique for detecting microplastics in complex natural matrices such as sediment and biological tissue, finding the method provided sufficient contrast for visual identification without requiring expensive spectroscopic equipment.

2025 Biotechnic & Histochemistry 2 citations