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Optical sieve for nanoplastic detection, sizing and counting

Nature Photonics volume 19, pages 1138–1145 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Micro- and nanoplastic particles are ubiquitous environmental pollutants, threatening human health, aquatic and soil ecosystems. These minute synthetic fragments, persisting for centuries, infiltrate the food chain, posing potential health risks through bioaccumulation in various tissues, toxicity and exposure to associated chemicals. Although macro- and microplastics are intensively examined in environmental and biological research, information on nanoplastics with diameters below 1 μm is limited. Such particles can cross biological borders, including the blood–brain barrier, posing a greater health risk than microplastics. Apart from the mere detection of such particles, gaining an understanding of size distribution, numbers and size limits will be crucial in assessing their impact on global ecosystems and human health. Here we establish an optical sieve that uses Mie void resonances for nanoplastic detection and sizing. The optical sieve consists of arrays of optically resonant voids with different diameters that simultaneously serve as filtering and sorting elements, as well as all-optical reporters, requiring only an optical microscope and a standard camera with an RGB sensor in combination with colorimetric analysis. The system is evaluated using a synthesized real-world sample with a plastic particle mass concentration of 150 μg ml−1. Our approach consequently delivers statistical information on numbers, size and size distribution via the observation of distinct colour changes, overcoming the need for advanced techniques such as scanning electron microscopy. The proposed method offers a straightforward, highly accessible and mobile solution, making it an efficient and easily implemented tool for environmental and biological research.

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Fig. 1: Nanoplastic detection using the optical sieve.
Fig. 2: Colour change induced by single plastic particles.
Fig. 3: Nanoplastic particle sizing.
Fig. 4: Colorimetric analysis for nanoparticle counting.
Fig. 5: Detecting nanoplastic particles in synthesized real-world samples.

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Data availability

Further experimental and simulated data are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. Source Data are provided within this paper

Code availability

The numerical simulation code and colour readout code are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge a grant through the Australia–Germany Joint Research Cooperation Scheme (Deutscher Akademische Austauschdienst (UA-DAAD); Programm des Projektbezogenen Personenaustauschs Australien 2023–2025; grant number 57654632), Baden-Wüerttemberg-Stiftung (Opterial), Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst Baden-Württemberg (RiSC, Innovation Campus Future Mobility; Sd Manu1, Lab7), Vector Stiftung (MINT Innovations), European Research Council (Advanced Grant Complex-plas, PoC Grant 3DPrintedOptics), the German Research Foundation (SPP1839 Tailored Disorder; grant number 431314977/GRK2642), Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (Printoptics, Q.Link.X, QR.X), HORIZON EUROPE European Innovation Council (IV-LAB; grant number 101115-545), Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung (EndoPrint3D, QPhoton) and the University of Stuttgart (Terra Incognita). H.G. thanks the University of Melbourne for a Sir Thomas Lyle Fellowship. L.W., S.B.S. and A.R. acknowledge the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence Grant (grant number CE200100010). S.B.S. acknowledges the support of the Ernst and Grace Matthaei Scholarship and the Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. 4th Physics Institute and Research Center SCoPE, University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany

    D. Ludescher, J. Schwab, J. Karst, M. Ubl, H. Giessen & M. Hentschel

  2. ARC Center of Excellence for Transformative Meta-Optical Systems (TMOS), School of Physics, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    L. Wesemann, S. B. Sulejman & A. Roberts

  3. Australian Laboratory for Emerging Contaminants, School of Chemistry, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    B. O. Clarke

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  1. D. Ludescher
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  2. L. Wesemann
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Contributions

D.L., L.W., M.U. and M.H. performed the measurements and contributed to the definition of the experimental procedure. M.H. conceived the experiments. B.O.C, A.R., H.G. and M.H. supervised the project. D.L. and M.H. evaluated and analysed the results. J.S. designed and performed all simulations. D.L., J.K. and M.H. developed the code for the colour readout. L.W., S.B.S., B.O.C. and A.R. expanded the paper by interdisciplinary discussions. All authors participated in the generation of the paper and contributed to the final version of the work.

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Correspondence to D. Ludescher or M. Hentschel.

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Supplementary Methods, Figs. 1–11, supporting the findings presented in the main manuscript.

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Ludescher, D., Wesemann, L., Schwab, J. et al. Optical sieve for nanoplastic detection, sizing and counting. Nat. Photon. 19, 1138–1145 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-025-01733-x

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