Papers

61,005 results
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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

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

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

Researchers compared three solvents — acetone, chloroform, and n-hexane — for Nile Red fluorescent staining of microplastics across multiple polymer types and post-consumer materials, finding chloroform most effective with an 83.3% recovery rate, though the method falls short of the reliability of Raman or FTIR spectroscopy.

2017 SDRP Journal of Earth Sciences & Environmental Studies 107 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

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

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

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

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

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
Article Tier 2

Dyeing to Know: Harmonising Nile Red Staining Protocols for Microplastic Identification

Researchers tested eight carrier solvents for Nile Red fluorescence staining of ten common microplastic polymer types to identify which combinations best distinguish MPs. Carrier solvent choice significantly affected fluorescence behavior and classification accuracy, identifying specific solvent-polymer combinations that optimize MP identification—a step toward harmonizing the widely used but unstandardized Nile Red staining protocol.

2025 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Dyeing to Know: Harmonizing Nile Red Staining Protocols for Microplastic Identification

Researchers systematically evaluated eight carrier solvents for Nile Red fluorescence staining to improve microplastic identification and classification. The study identified an acetone-water mixture as the optimal solvent, balancing strong fluorescence performance with minimal polymer degradation, and demonstrated that Fenton oxidation effectively eliminated false-positive fluorescence from natural organic materials.

2025 Colorants 7 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

Nile red staining in microplastic analysis—proposal for a reliable and fast identification approach for large microplastics

Researchers tested Nile red staining with UV light photography as a rapid and reliable method for identifying large microplastics in environmental samples, finding it comparable to fluorescence microscopy-based staining and confirmed by μ-Raman spectroscopy.

2019 Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 87 citations
Article Tier 2

Suitability of Nile Red Dye for In-Situ Microplastic Detection

This thesis evaluated the suitability of Nile Red fluorescent dye for detecting microplastics in environmental samples, examining its effectiveness and limitations for field use. Accurate and affordable detection methods are essential for tracking plastic pollution in oceans and waterways.

2023
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

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

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

Comprehensive assessment of factors influencing Nile red staining: Eliciting solutions for efficient microplastics analysis

Researchers conducted a comprehensive assessment of Nile red staining for microplastic analysis and found that wavelength, temperature, hydrogen peroxide treatment, NaCl addition, and plastic polymer type all significantly influence staining efficiency, proposing solutions to improve detection accuracy.

2021 Marine Pollution Bulletin 48 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

Modification of a Nile Red Staining Method for Microplastics Analysis: A Nile Red Plate Method

Researchers developed a modified Nile Red staining method — the 'Nile Red plate method' (NR-P) — in which plates are pre-coated with Nile Red dye rather than staining microplastics directly, overcoming limitations of the standard method when organic matter residues interfere with particle staining. They optimised the NR solution concentration at 1000 mg/L and confirmed the method's effectiveness across multiple common polymer types.

2020 Water 61 citations
Article Tier 2

Preparation of biological samples for microplastic identification by Nile Red

This study optimized sample preparation procedures for Nile Red staining of microplastics in biological matrices, identifying interfering substances and developing pre-treatment steps that improve fluorescence staining specificity.

2021 The Science of The Total Environment 71 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

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

Nile Red staining for detecting microplastics in biota: Preliminary evidence

Nile Red fluorescent staining was tested for identifying microplastics in biological tissue samples, finding that it successfully highlighted plastic particles in fish guts and bivalve tissues with minimal interference from digested organic residues, supporting its use as a quick screening tool before confirmatory spectroscopy.

2021 Marine Pollution Bulletin 66 citations