Researchers Propose New Method to Identify Label-Free Microplastics in Crop Plants

Jun 27, 2023

By Li Yuan

A research team led by Prof. Fan Qiaohui from the Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources (NIEER) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), in collaboration with Prof. Luo Yongming from the Institute of Soil Science of CAS, has systematically investigated label-free microplastics identification in crop plants and stress response to microplastics in wheat seedlings. The study was published in Journal of Hazardous Materials on May 22.

Most previous studies on the detection of microplastics in plants were based on fluorescent labeling. However, this method has certain disadvantages, including false-positive fluorescent signals of microplastics due to interference from background fluorescence of plant tissues and high limits of detection.

Therefore, new detecting techniques of microplastics in plants are urgently needed to achieve accurate detection and quantification.

In this study, the researchers found that hyperspectral-enhanced dark field microscopy could be applied precisely to the detection of label-free microplastics based on the spectral information of the polymer substance, as this method completely avoids the interference caused by the shed of microplastics markers.

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