Nanoplastic Detection and Identification

Microplastics and nanoplastics have been found in most organs of the human body and are a major health concern. To understand how these polymer particles serve as disease vectors, there are needs for new instrumental solutions that can detect and analyze these particles in a variety of sample matrices including water, soil, air, food, and in bodily fluids and tissues. A major bottleneck in these studies is the identification of the chemical species of the smaller nanoscale particles in order to determine if certain plastic types correlate to harmful biological interactions at the cellular level.

We are developing a new suite of hybrid tools using fluorescence microscopy and Raman spectroscopy to analyze micro and nanoplastics that are present in a variety of sample matrices. Initially our focus is on environmental water samples, tap water and drinking water sold in plastic bottles, typically PET.