Work

Simple, sensitive and specific detection method for polystyrene nanoplastics in food matrix based on peptide-modified Fe3O4@Au magnetic nanoparticles

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Microplastics (MPs) and nanoplastics (NPs) are emerging hazardous pollutants that pose a significant threat to the global environment and human health. MPs and NPs have been detected in water sources and food products. Due to the wide variety of NPs, and low concentrations in environment and food samples, the rapid and selective detection of NPs still remains a challenge. Here, we prepared the peptide modified Fe 3 O 4 @Au magnetic nanoparticles as a selective probe to establish a simple, sensitive and specific method for polystyrene (PS) NPs detection. First, a layer of gold shell was in-situ grown on the surface of Fe 3 O 4 to provide more modification sites, and the PS binding peptide (PSBP) was then modified by Au-S bonds to construct a selective probe for PS NPs. Under optimized detection conditions, ultra-low concentration of PS could be quantitatively detected by simply monitoring the UV–vis absorption change of the probe. The peptide modified Fe 3 O 4 @Au probe (Fe 3 O 4 @Au-PSBP) showed excellent linearity in the range from 0 to 80 pg mL −1 with the limit of detection (LOD) of 0.074 pg mL −1 . The method has been successfully applied in real samples, such as bottled water, salt and milk with the recoveries from 89.15 % to 110.91 %. The proposed Fe 3 O 4 @Au-PSBP is easily extendable to other types of NPs by simply replacing the peptide, showing great potential as a universal specific probe for sensitive and rapid detection of low concentration NPs in the actual samples. • Fe 3 O 4 @Au-PSBP was prepared as sensitive probe for nanoplastics detection. • 2.The selected peptide improved the specificity of polystyrene nanoplastics detection. • The detection method was simple, rapid (20 min) and sensitive (0.074 pg mL −1 ). • Polystyrene nanoplastics in three spiked food samples were detected.

Source: Current Research in Food Science

DOI: 10.1016/j.crfs.2025.101148

Authors: Beibei Wang, Ling Sun, Kai Liu, Di Wu, Jinqiu Wang, Fang Geng

Institution: Chengdu University

Language: English

Topic: Microplastics and Plastic Pollution

Subfield: Pollution

Field: Environmental Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $3,170

Funders: Sichuan Province Science and Technology Support Program, Modern Agricultural Technology Industry System of Shandong province