Cost-Effective and Wireless Portable Device for Rapid and Sensitive Quantification of Micro/Nanoplastics

The accumulation of micro/nanoplastics (MNPs) in ecosystems poses tremendous environmental risks for terrestrial and aquat-ic 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 a wireless portable de-vice that allows rapid, sensitive, and on-site detection of MNPs, followed by remote data processing via machine learn-ing algorithms for quantitative fluorescence imaging. We uti-lized a supramolecular labeling strategy, employing lumines-cent metal-phenolic networks composed of zirconium ions, tannic acid, and rhodamine B, to efficiently label various sizes of MNPs (e.g., 50 nm – 10 μm). Results showed that our de-vice can quantify MNPs as low as 330 microplastics and 3.08×106 nanoplastics in less than 20 min. We demonstrated the applicability of the device to real-world samples through determination of MNPs released from plastic cups after hot water and flow induction, and nanoplastics in tap water. More-over, the device is user-friendly and operative by untrained personnel to conduct data processing on APP remotely. The analytical platform integrating quantitative imaging, custom-ized data processing, decision tree model and low-cost analysis ($0.015 per assay) has great potential for high-throughput screening of MNPs in agrifood and environmental systems.