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Ye, Haoxin

University of British Columbia

The accumulation of micro/nanoplastics (MNPs) in ecosystems poses tremendous environmental risks for terrestrial and aquatic organisms. Designing rapid, field-deployable, and sensitive devices for assessing the potential risks of MNPs pollution is critical. However, current techniques for MNPs detection have limited effectiveness. Here, we design dual-mode portable sensing platforms for the sensitive detection of MNPs. We utilized luminescent metal-phenolic networks (L-MPNs) composed of zirconium ions, tannic acid, and rhodamine B, to serve as both fluorescent labeling and Raman reporters of MNPs. First, a wireless portable device was developed with remote data processing via machine learning algorithms for quantitative fluorescence imaging. Results showed that our device can quantify MNPs as low as 330 microplastics and 3.08×10⁶ nanoplastics in less than 20 min. Second, the L-MPNs strategy was combined with a portable Raman instrument to offer cost-effective, swift, and field-deployable detection capabilities, with excellent sensitivity in nanoplastics analysis and a detection threshold as low as 0.1 μg/mL. We then integrated metal phenolic networks (MPNs)-mediated separation and machine learning-aided (Surface enhanced Raman scattering) SERS methods to achieve accurate classification of nanoplastics instead of traditional manual analysis of SERS spectra. Our customized machine learning procedure (e.g., outlier detection, classification, qualification) allows the identification of detectable nanoplastics (accuracy 81.84%), accurate classification (accuracy > 97%) and the sensitive quantification of various types of nanoplastics including polystyrene (PS), polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), polyethylene (PE), polylactic acid (PLA) down to ultra-low concentrations (0.1 ppm). For real-world applications, released MNPs were detected from PS cups containing boiling water and water heated by microwave energy using the established SERS method. The presence of added epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), a relevant catechin polyphenol common to tea, enhanced MNP release (P<0.05) when water was microwaved compared with boiling water. Of interest was the finding that EGCG also mitigated the detrimental effects of increased MNPs exposure in differentiated Caco-2 cell redox status in a concentration-dependent manner (P<0.05). Overall, this study proposes a highly promising strategy for the robust and sensitive analysis of a broad spectrum of plastic particle analytes in agri-food and environmental systems when coupled with portable fluorescence devices and SERS techniques.

Text

2024-08-06

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/88882

Food Science

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/