Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Electrochemical and Colorimetric Nanosensors for Detection of Heavy Metal Ions: A Review

This review covers nanosensor technologies being developed to detect heavy metal contamination in environmental and food samples, which is important because heavy metals are linked to cancer, neurological disorders, and developmental problems. While focused on metal detection rather than plastics directly, these affordable and portable sensor technologies could be adapted for detecting microplastic-associated contaminants in water and food.

2023 Sensors 74 citations
Article Tier 2

Advances in Portable Heavy Metal Ion Sensors

This review covers advances in portable sensors for detecting heavy metal ions in the environment, including electrochemical, optical, and smartphone-based devices. While focused on heavy metals rather than microplastics directly, the technology is relevant because microplastics often carry heavy metals that can leach into water and food. Better field-testing tools could help track how microplastics transport toxic metals into the environment and human food sources.

2023 Sensors 83 citations
Article Tier 2

Bioaccumulation and Bioremediation of Heavy Metals in Fishes—A Review

This review summarizes how heavy metals accumulate in fish tissues through contaminated water and enter the human food chain, posing serious public health concerns. The paper discusses bioremediation techniques using microorganisms and other methods to remove heavy metals from aquatic environments, which is relevant because microplastics can carry and concentrate these same toxic metals.

2023 Toxics 161 citations
Article Tier 2

Perspective Chapter: Heavy Metals-Mediated Chemical Contamination in Foods, Associated Health Risks, and Remediation Techniques

This review examines heavy metal contamination in food from environmental sources like mining, industrial discharge, and agricultural chemicals. While focused on metals rather than microplastics, the pathways described overlap significantly with how microplastics enter the food chain through contaminated soil, water, and air. The authors discuss health risks and remediation techniques that may also be relevant to addressing co-contamination by microplastics and heavy metals.

2025 IntechOpen eBooks 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Illuminating the Invisible: Fluorescent Probes as Emerging Tools for Micro/Nanoplastic Identification

This review traces the development of fluorescent probes for detecting micro- and nanoplastics in environmental samples, from early hydrophobic stains to advanced molecular designs with improved selectivity. Researchers found that newer probe technologies offer significant advantages in sensitivity and throughput compared to conventional detection methods like FTIR and Raman spectroscopy. The study highlights remaining challenges including standardizing protocols across different environmental matrices and improving detection of the smallest nanoplastic particles.

2025 International Journal of Molecular Sciences 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Advances in microplastic characterization: Spectroscopic techniques and heavy metal adsorption insights

This review covers the various techniques scientists use to identify and characterize microplastics and the heavy metals that stick to their surfaces, including infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and electron microscopy. Understanding what types of plastics are present and what toxic metals they carry is essential for assessing the health risks of microplastic exposure.

2024 TrAC Trends in Analytical Chemistry 40 citations
Article Tier 2

Nondestructive Testing in Food Quality and Safety: Development and Applications

This study reviews nondestructive testing methods used to ensure food quality and safety, including techniques that can detect contaminants like microplastics without damaging food samples. The authors survey emerging analytical tools that offer faster and more practical alternatives to traditional laboratory methods for food safety screening. These technologies could help improve monitoring of microplastic contamination in the food supply.

2025 Foods 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Influence of Microplastics on the Mobility, Bioavailability, and Toxicity of Heavy Metals: A Review

This review examines how microplastics interact with heavy metals in the environment, potentially influencing the metals' mobility, bioavailability, and toxicity to living organisms. Researchers found that microplastics can adsorb heavy metals and transport them to new locations, but the interactions depend on the type of plastic, metal, and environmental conditions. The study highlights that microplastics acting as carriers for toxic metals represents an underappreciated environmental and health risk.

2021 Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 115 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic-mediated environmental behavior of metal contaminants: mechanism and implication

This review examines how microplastics interact with heavy metals across water, soil, and air environments, acting as carriers that concentrate and transport toxic metals. Researchers found that microplastics can increase the bioavailability and toxicity of metal contaminants to living organisms. The study highlights major gaps in current analytical methods and calls for better tools to understand these complex pollutant interactions.

2024 Environmental Science and Pollution Research 8 citations
Article Tier 2

Biosensors in environmental analysis of microplastics and heavy metal compounds – A review on current status and challenges

This review examines how biosensors -- devices that use biological materials to detect pollutants -- could provide faster and cheaper monitoring of microplastics and heavy metals in the environment. Current methods for detecting microplastics are expensive and time-consuming, so biosensor technology could help track contamination more widely. Better environmental monitoring is an important step toward reducing the microplastic exposure that ultimately affects human health.

2024 Desalination and Water Treatment 28 citations
Article Tier 2

Interaction of microplastics with heavy metals in soil: Mechanisms, influencing factors and biological effects

This review summarizes how microplastics and heavy metals interact in soil, where microplastics can absorb and carry toxic metals through the food chain and into the human body. Aging and weathering of microplastics changes their surface properties, making them better at picking up heavy metals, which raises concerns about combined exposure through contaminated crops and water.

2024 The Science of The Total Environment 96 citations
Article Tier 2

Current and emerging techniques for the detection of environmental contaminants

Not directly relevant to microplastics — this review surveys analytical techniques for detecting a broad range of environmental contaminants including heavy metals, synthetic chemicals, pathogens, and e-waste, with microplastics mentioned only as one category among many.

2023 1 citations
Review Tier 2

Methods for the identification and quantification of microplastics in foods (a review)

This review examined analytical methods for identifying and quantifying microplastics in food, finding that standardized, sensitive techniques are urgently needed to accurately assess human dietary exposure to these emerging contaminants.

2023 Problems of Nutrition
Article Tier 2

Discovery and solution for microplastics: New risk carriers in food

This review summarizes the current state of microplastic contamination in food, covering which foods are affected, how to detect microplastics, and how to break them down. Microplastics accumulate through the food chain and have been confirmed in many everyday foods, posing serious health risks. The authors call for standardized detection methods and national policies to monitor and reduce microplastic contamination in the food supply.

2025 Food Chemistry 13 citations
Article Tier 2

A Retrospection on Mercury Contamination, Bioaccumulation, and Toxicity in Diverse Environments: Current Insights and Future Prospects

This review examines mercury contamination in the environment, its accumulation in the food chain, and its toxic effects on living organisms. Mercury exposure through contaminated crops and seafood can cause cancer, genetic damage, and disruption of enzymes and proteins in the body. While focused on mercury rather than microplastics, the research is relevant because microplastics can absorb and transport mercury and other heavy metals into organisms.

2023 Sustainability 64 citations
Article Tier 2

Overview of microplastics pollution with heavy metals: Analytical methods, occurrence, transfer risks and call for standardization

This review systematically assessed current methods for detecting and measuring heavy metals that accumulate on microplastics in the environment. Researchers found significant inconsistencies across studies in sample preparation, measurement techniques, and reporting units, making it difficult to compare results globally. The study calls for standardized protocols to improve our understanding of how microplastics transport heavy metals through ecosystems and the potential risks this poses.

2021 Journal of Hazardous Materials 154 citations
Article Tier 2

Assessment of soil microplastics: An overview on toxicity, effects on heavy metals adsorption, solid-phase extraction, and detection techniques

This review examined how microplastics in soil enter the food chain and pose human health risks, with particular attention to their role as carriers for heavy metals. Agricultural practices like plastic mulching and sewage sludge application were identified as major sources of soil MP contamination.

2025 Sustainable Environment
Article Tier 2

Recent advances in inspection technologies of food safety health hazards for fish and fish products

This review covers recent advances in detection technologies for food safety hazards in fish and fish products, including methods for identifying microplastics, biological contaminants, and chemical hazards. Researchers evaluated 21 detection approaches spanning spectroscopic, immunological, biosensor, and chromatographic techniques. The study serves as a guide for researchers working on seafood safety and emphasizes the importance of keeping pace with evolving detection technologies.

2023 Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition 6 citations
Review Tier 2

[Review of Methods and Risk Assessment of Microplastics from Food Sources].

This review examines methods for detecting and assessing the risks of microplastic contamination in food, covering exposure pathways from raw materials through processing and packaging. Researchers summarized analytical techniques for identifying microplastics in food products and evaluated approaches for assessing human health risks from dietary exposure. The study emphasizes the need for standardized detection methods and more comprehensive risk assessment frameworks for food-borne microplastics.

2025 PubMed 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics in human food chains: Food becoming a threat to health safety

This review traces how microplastics enter the human food chain through both animal and plant sources, food packaging, and beverages. Once consumed, microplastics can accumulate in tissues and release harmful chemicals like plasticizers and heavy metals inside the body. The study emphasizes that food has become a major exposure pathway for microplastics and calls for stricter regulation of plastic use in food production and packaging.

2022 The Science of The Total Environment 542 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics in Foods and Beverages

This review examines microplastic contamination across a wide range of food and beverage products, describing the detection techniques used to identify microplastic particles and summarizing findings on which products are most affected. The authors also discuss the potential health consequences of human dietary microplastic ingestion.

2024 Repository of the Faculty of Food Technology Osijek
Article Tier 2

Recent advances in luminescent chemosensors for sensitive and selective detection of heavy metal ions in aqueous environments

Scientists have reviewed new tools that use light to detect dangerous heavy metals like lead and mercury in water. These "luminescent sensors" can quickly spot tiny amounts of toxic metals, which is important because heavy metals can cause serious health problems when people drink contaminated water. The research shows these sensors could provide a cheaper, faster way to test water safety compared to current methods.

2026 Discover Sensors
Article Tier 2

Microplastics as vectors of other contaminants: Analytical determination techniques and remediation methods

This review examines how microplastics act as carriers for other pollutants, absorbing harmful organic and inorganic chemicals from the environment. It covers the latest methods for detecting and identifying microplastics in different settings, as well as promising cleanup approaches like microbial degradation. The findings underscore that microplastics may be more dangerous than the plastic itself because of the toxic hitchhikers they carry into the food chain and water supply.

2023 The Science of The Total Environment 48 citations
Article Tier 2

Labelling of micro- and nanoplastics for environmental studies: state-of-the-art and future challenges

Researchers reviewed labelling techniques used to track micro- and nanoplastics in environmental studies, categorizing them into fluorescent, metal, stable isotope, and radioisotope methods. The study found that fluorescent labelling works well for tracking microplastics while metal labelling is more sensitive for nanoplastics research, though a major challenge remains in developing techniques that do not alter the inherent properties of the plastic particles being studied.

2023 Journal of Hazardous Materials 30 citations