Microplastics represent an emerging environmental problem worldwide,raising ecological and food safety concerns.Compared to microplastics,there is growing evidence of an even higher abundance of submicro-and nanoplastics in the environment,but a reliable mon-itoring method for detecting these smaller-sized plastics is lacking.Herein we presented the application of surface-enhanced Raman scattering(SERS)for this purpose.Particles of polystyrene(PS;600 nm)were used as the probe analyte.Gold nanourchins(AuNU;50 nm),i.e.urchin-shaped nanoparticles with irregular spikes around the core,were used as the SERS-active substrate.The effectiveness of SERS on PS was evaluated at a single-particle level with different numbers of AuNU in order to determine the minimum conditions re-quired for the onset of the SERS effect.Our findings suggest that SERS of a single particle of PS can be induced by as few as 1-5 particles of AuNU,and that the use of excitation wave-length at 785 nm is appropriate to meet the red-shifted surface plasmon resonance of AuNU upon aggregation.These specifications provide additional information for the development of SERS-based tools for detecting plastic particles＜1 pm in food and environmental sam-ples.

Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology,The Hong Kong Polytechnic University,Kowloon,Hong Kong SAR,China;Institute of Textiles and Clothing,The Hong Kong Polytechnic University,Kowloon,Hong Kong SAR,China;Research Institute for Future Food,The Hong Kong Polytechnic University,Kowloon,Hong Kong SAR,China;State Key Laboratory of Marine Pollution,City University of Hong Kong,Kowloon,Hong Kong SAR,China

[1]Cheng-Hao Lee;James Kar-Hei Fang-.The onset of surface-enhanced Raman scattering for single-particle detection of submicroplastics)[J].环境科学学报（英文版）,2022(11):58-64

submicroplastics,submicro,nanourchins,AuNU

onset,surface,enhanced,Raman,scattering,single,detection,Microplastics,represent,emerging,environmental,problem,worldwide,raising,ecological,food,safety,concerns,Compared,there,growing,evidence,even,higher,abundance,nanoplastics,but,reliable,itoring,method,detecting,these,smaller,sized,lacking,Herein,presented,application,SERS,this,purpose,Particles,polystyrene,PS,were,used,probe,analyte,Gold,shaped,nanoparticles,irregular,spikes,around,core,active,substrate,effectiveness,was,evaluated,level,different,numbers,order,determine,minimum,conditions,quired,Our,findings,suggest,that,can,induced,by,few,excitation,wave,length,appropriate,meet,shifted,plasmon,resonance,upon,aggregation,These,specifications,provide,additional,information,development,tools,sam,ples

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