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. 2024 Dec:187:103722.
doi: 10.1016/j.micron.2024.103722. Epub 2024 Sep 18.

Direct monitoring of the enzymatically sequestering and degrading of PET microplastics using hyperspectral Raman microscopy

Ana L C P de Brito  1 , João V Mattioni  1 , Gabriel R Ramos  1 , Marcelo Nakamura  1 , Henrique E Toma  2
Affiliations

Direct monitoring of the enzymatically sequestering and degrading of PET microplastics using hyperspectral Raman microscopy

Ana L C P de Brito et al. Micron. 2024 Dec.

Abstract

Microplastics are commonly referred to as tiny plastic fragments polluting our environment, although their nanometric forms have also been found in our drinking water supplies and many living systems. Their removal is relevant for preserving our health and sustainability and is being pursued according to many different strategies, including filtration through selective porous materials or agglomeration using flocculant agents. An alternative nanotechnological approach described in this paper deals with the capture and degradation of micro and nanoplastics by enzyme-immobilized magnetic nanoparticles. Magnetic nanoparticles (Fe3O4) were functionalized with polydopamine (PDA) and Lipase enzyme straightforwardly to generate agents capable of removing and degrading µPET from an aqueous solution. In addition to synthesizing and characterizing the Fe3O4@PDA-Lipase nanoparticles and performing the µPET degradation, the novelty encompassed in this work is the successful use of confocal Raman microscopy to monitor the process, in real-time, through in situ hyperspectral images.

Keywords: Confocal Raman; Hyperspectral microscopy; Magnetic nanoparticles; Microplastic contaminants; Polydopamine.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Henrique Eisi Toma reports financial support was provided by University of Sao Paulo, Institute of Chemistry. Henrique Eisi Toma reports a relationship with Instito de Quimica Universidade de São Paulo that includes: employment. Henrique Eisi Toma has patent pending to none. Nothing to declare If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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