Micro- and nanoplastics are considered
one of the top pollutants
that threaten the environment, aquatic life, and mammalian (including
human) health. Unfortunately, the development of uncomplicated but
reliable analytical methods that are sensitive to individual microplastic
particles, with sizes smaller than 1 μm, remains incomplete.
Here, we demonstrate the detection and identification of (single)
micro- and nanoplastics by using surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy
(SERS) with Klarite substrates. Klarite is an exceptional SERS substrate;
it is shaped as a dense grid of inverted pyramidal cavities made of
gold. Numerical simulations demonstrate that these cavities (or pits)
strongly focus incident light into intense hotspots. We show that
Klarite has the potential to facilitate the detection and identification
of synthesized and atmospheric/aquatic microplastic (single) particles,
with sizes down to 360 nm. We find enhancement factors of up to 2
orders of magnitude for polystyrene analytes. In addition, we detect
and identify microplastics with sizes down to 450 nm on Klarite, with
samples extracted from ambient, airborne particles. Moreover, we demonstrate
Raman mapping as a fast detection technique for submicron microplastic
particles. The results show that SERS with Klarite is a facile technique
that has the potential to detect and systematically measure nanoplastics
in the environment. This research is an important step toward detecting
nanoscale plastic particles that may cause toxic effects to mammalian
and aquatic life when present in high concentrations.
Water soluble low-molecular-weight dicarboxylic acids (DCAs) and corresponding salts are ubiquitous in the atmosphere. They could efficiently form chelate with iron in atmospheric particles, which could be photoexcited to generate...
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.