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V-shaped substrate for surface and volume enhanced Raman spectroscopic analysis of microplastics

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Abstract

Research on the microplastics (MPs) is developing towards smaller size, but corresponding methods for the rapid and accurate detection of microplastics, especially nanoplastics still present challenge. In this work, a novel surface and volume enhanced Raman spectroscopy substrate was developed for the rapid detection of microplastic particles below 5 μm. The gold nanoparticles (NPs) were deposited onto the surface and into the V-shaped nanopores of anodized aluminum oxide (AAO) through magnetron sputtering or ion sputtering, and then AuNPs@V-shaped AAO SERS substrate was obtained and studied for microplastic detection. SERS performance of AuNPs@V-shaped AAO SERS substrate was evaluated through the detection of polystyrene and polymethyl methacrylate microspheres. Results indicated that individual polystyrene sphere with a diameter of 1 μm can be well detected on AuNPs@V-shaped AAO SERS substrate, and the maximum enhancement factor (EF) can reach 20. In addition, microplastics in ambient atmospheric samples were collected and tested to verify the effectiveness of the AuNPs@V-shaped AAO SERS substrate in the real environment. This study provides a rapid, economic and simple method for detecting and identifying microplastics with small size.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 22176036, 21976030 and 22006020), the Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai (China) (No. 19ZR1471200).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shanghai Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Particle Pollution and Prevention, Department of Environmental Science & Engineering, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, China

    Juan Liu, Guanjun Xu, Xuejun Ruan, Kejian Li & Liwu Zhang

  2. Shanghai Institute of Pollution Control and Ecological Security, Shanghai, 200092, China

    Liwu Zhang

Authors
  1. Juan Liu
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  2. Guanjun Xu
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  3. Xuejun Ruan
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  4. Kejian Li
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  5. Liwu Zhang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Liwu Zhang.

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Highlights

• V-shaped substrate was obtained for SERS analysis of microplastics (diameter ≈ 1 μm).

• Enhancement factor of V-shaped substrate can reach 20 in microplastics detection.

• V-shaped nanopore array can bring additional volume enhancement.

• V-shaped substrate was more economic in application compared to Klarite substrate.

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Liu, J., Xu, G., Ruan, X. et al. V-shaped substrate for surface and volume enhanced Raman spectroscopic analysis of microplastics. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng. 16, 143 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-022-1578-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-022-1578-8

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