Dark-Field Hyperspectral Microscopy for Carbon Nanotubes Bioimaging

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes have emerged as a versatile and ubiquitous nanomaterial, finding applications in industry and biomedicine. As a result, biosafety concerns that stimulated the research focused on evaluation of carbon nanotube toxicity. In addition, biomedical applications of carbon nanotubes require their imaging and identification in biological specimens. Among other methods, dark-field microscopy has become a potent tool to visualise and identify carbon nanotubes in cells, tissues, and organisms. Based on the Tyndall effect, dark-field optical microscopy at higher magnification is capable of imaging nanoscale particles in live objects. If reinforced with spectral identification, this technology can be utilised for chemical identification and mapping of carbon nanotubes. In this article we overview the recent advances in dark-field/hyperspectral microscopy for the bioimaging of carbon nanotubes.

Identification of micro- and nanoplastics released from medical masks using hyperspectral imaging and deep learning

“…In this way, enhanced dark-field microscopy with hyperspectral imaging (EDFM-HSI) was successfully applied to identify various nanomaterials in environmental and biological samples. [21][22][23][24] Particularly, EDFM-HSI could be performed for quantitative analysis of commercial polystyrene micro-and nanoplastics in cell cultures and organisms. 25,26 However, the investigation of the other types of polymers by this technique remains uncovered due to the small number of useful spectral features in the 375-970 nm region for most polymers except polystyrene.…”