Toward Nano- and Microplastic Sensors: Identification of Nano- and Microplastic Particles via Artificial Intelligence Combined with a Plasmonic Probe Functionalized with an Estrogen Receptor

Abstract

Nano-and microplastic particles are a global and emerging environmental issue that might pose potential threats to human health. The present work exploits artificial intelligence (AI) to identify nano-and microplastics in water by monitoring the interaction of the sample with a sensitive surface. An estrogen receptor (ER) grafted onto a gold surface, realized on a nonexpensive and easy-to-produce plastic optical fiber (POF) platform in order to excite a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) phenomenon, has been developed in order to carry out a "smart" sensitive interface (ER−SPR−POF interface). The ER−SPR−POF interface offers output data useful for exploiting a machine learning-based approach to achieve nano-and microplastic particle sensors. This work developed a proof-of-concept sensor through a training phase carried out by different particles, in terms of materials and size. The experimental results have demonstrated that the proposed "smart" ER−SPR− POF interface combined with AI can be used to identify the kind of particles in terms of the materials (polystyrene; poly(methyl methacrylate)) and size (20 μm; 100 nm) with an accuracy of 90.3%.