Plastic waste, especially microplastics, is a growing environmental problem. Mid infrared spectroscopy (MIR) is suitable for determining microplastics contamination. Currently, the required measuring devices are large and not robust enough for mobile and on site monitoring. Here we describe a concept using Quantum Photonics for a new class of MIR spectrometers based on the entangled photons principle. The system can be made compact and robust with readily available components. The combination with new microfluidics chips, suitable for MIR detection and artificial intelligence for automated image analysis and particle identification will open up completely new possibilities for environmental analysis and monitoring.
Quantitative phase imaging (QPI) has been demonstrated to be a versatile tool for minimally invasive label-free imaging of biological specimens and time-resolved cellular analysis. In cytotoxicity testing, a commonly performed task in the preclinical development of new medical products, a flexible time-resolved label-free quantification of drug mediated effects is highly desirable. We thus explored the capabilities of digital holographic microscopy (DHM), an interferometric variant of QPI, to determine the temporal dry mass development of a cell population of RAW 264.7 mouse macrophages to quantify effects caused by medical nanoparticles in vitro in comparison to digitonin, which was used as cytotoxic positive control, and untreated cells in culture medium. Digital off-axis holograms from medical nanoparticles and digitonin incubated cells as well as from untreated control cells were acquired automated in multi-well imaging plates using a modular DHM system that was equipped with a motorized stage. From the retrieved time-lapse series of quantitative phase images, the temporal development of the dry mass in the observed field of view was calculated. As dry mass is correlated to cellular proliferation, toxicological effects of the medical nanoparticles on macrophages can be quantified at the nanogram scale. We found a similar temporal dry mass development of control macrophages in the cell culture medium and after incubation with non-toxic liposomes, while cytotoxic poly(alkyl cyanoacrylate) nanoparticles significantly reduced the dry mass increment in a dose-dependent manner. In summary, our results show for macrophages that the observation of the temporal dry mass development allows to discriminate reliably between non(low)-toxic and harmful nanomaterials.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.