Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Highly efficient Nile red staining for the rapid quantification of microplastic number concentrations using flow cytometry

Scientists developed an improved method for staining microplastics with a fluorescent dye (Nile red) that embeds the dye inside the plastic particles rather than just coating the surface, resulting in much brighter and more reliable detection. Combined with high-speed flow cytometry, the technique can rapidly count microplastic particles smaller than 10 µm in environmental water samples with recovery rates above 99%. Faster and more accurate counting methods like this are important for scaling up microplastic monitoring across many water sources.

2025 Analytical Methods 1 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

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

Nile Red staining for nanoplastic quantification: Overcoming the challenge of false positive counts due to fluorescent aggregates

Researchers expanded the Nile Red staining method to quantify nanoplastics smaller than 1 µm, identifying fluorescent aggregates as a source of false positive counts and developing methodological corrections to overcome this challenge and improve the accuracy of nanoplastic detection in environmental samples.

2023 3 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

Characterization of Nile Red-Stained Microplastics through Fluorescence Spectroscopy

Researchers developed an improved method for characterizing microplastics using Nile Red fluorescent staining combined with fluorescence spectroscopy. They found that different plastic polymers produce distinct fluorescent signatures when stained, enabling more reliable identification of plastic types. The technique offers a faster and more affordable alternative to traditional microplastic detection methods, which could help scale up environmental monitoring efforts.

2024 Preprints.org 3 citations
Article Tier 2

Rapid methods for the quantification of ingested nano-and microplastics in marine fish by imaging flow cytometry

Researchers developed a rapid, high-throughput method using imaging flow cytometry to quantify nano- and microplastics ingested by marine fish. The optimized technique uses Nile Red fluorescent staining and morphology-based corrections to accurately count plastic particles, providing a faster and more reliable alternative to conventional detection methods for ecological risk assessments.

2026 Journal of Hazardous Materials
Article Tier 2

Flow cytometry as new promising detection tool for micro and submicron plastic particles

Researchers evaluated flow cytometry as a detection tool for micro- and nanoplastics, testing its ability to rapidly identify and count plastic particles in environmental and biological samples. Results demonstrated that flow cytometry offers a promising high-throughput approach for microplastic detection compared to more time-intensive conventional methods.

2024 Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
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

Nile Red staining for nanoplastic quantification: Overcoming the challenge of false positive counts due to fluorescent aggregates

Researchers refined a Nile Red dye-based method to count nanoplastic particles in water by reducing dye concentration to near-nanomolar levels, minimizing false positives from dye aggregates that mimic plastic particles. Using this approach they detected approximately 250 nanoplastics per nanoliter in water from plastic bottles and cartons — roughly ten times more than in tap water.

2023 Environmental Challenges 17 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

Microplastics and nanoplastics detection using flow cytometry: Challenges and methodological advances with fluorescent dye application

This review examined the use of flow cytometry for detecting and counting micro- and nanoplastics in water, including challenges with fluorescent dye application. Researchers found that the technique can detect particles as small as 200 nanometers but that undissolved dye in water samples remains a significant source of measurement error. The review highlights recent methodological improvements and identifies remaining challenges that need to be addressed for reliable nanoplastic quantification.

2025 MethodsX 11 citations
Article Tier 2

Flow cytometry as new promising detection tool for micro and submicron plastic particles

Researchers evaluated flow cytometry as a tool for detecting and counting micro- and submicron plastic particles in environmental and biological samples. The method offered rapid throughput and the ability to distinguish plastic particles from biological material, but required careful optimization for complex matrices.

2024 Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Article Tier 2

A novel high-throughput analytical method to quantify microplastics in water by flow cytometry

Researchers developed a faster, high-throughput method using flow cytometry — a technology that rapidly counts and characterizes particles in liquid — to measure microplastics in water, achieving about 97% accuracy across multiple plastic types and sizes and offering a practical alternative to slow, labor-intensive microscopy-based counting.

2023 Green Analytical Chemistry 19 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

Preliminary Results From Detection of Microplastics in Liquid Samples Using Flow Cytometry

Researchers developed a novel flow cytometry approach for in-situ detection and quantification of microplastics in liquid samples using fluorescent staining, testing nine polymer types under controlled laboratory conditions. The method offers a high-throughput alternative to traditional time-consuming microplastic detection protocols that risk sample contamination.

2020 Frontiers in Marine Science 93 citations
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

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

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

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

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

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

Fast-screening flow cytometry method for detecting nanoplastics in human peripheral blood

Researchers developed a flow cytometry method using a fluorescent dye to detect and measure nanoplastics — plastic particles smaller than 1 micrometer — directly in human blood samples, providing one of the first approaches capable of tracking nanoplastic absorption in people and opening new avenues for studying their health effects.

2023 MethodsX 46 citations
Article Tier 2

Exploring the Efficacy of Nile Red in Microplastic Quantification: A Costaining Approach

This study assessed the effectiveness of Nile Red, a fluorescent dye commonly used to detect microplastics, by comparing it with other staining approaches and evaluating detection accuracy. The research found that costaining strategies and careful protocol standardization can improve the reliability of Nile Red-based microplastic quantification.

2019 Environmental Science & Technology Letters 168 citations