A Novel Technology for Real-time Detection of Toxic Particle Contaminants in a blink of an eye!

• The Ariya group demonstrates the detection of viruses like MS2 bacteriophage, mercury-containing particles, and other heavy metals as common toxic contaminants, as single particle in real-time or the cluster of particles, in a blink of an eye (milliseconds).
• Particle contaminants in water systems can come from man-made or natural origins, and there is still much to learn about their interactions and transformations in the environment. This automated technique can detect and track oil droplets in water systems to assess the impact of oil spills and can be utilized for other toxic contaminants of interest as well.
• Nano-DIHM can observe combined materials in water, characterizing the interactions of various particles in mixtures, and particles with different coatings in a suspension. The observed sizes of the particles and droplets ranged from ∼1 to 200 μm, with the ability of measuring nano-sized particles as well.
• These real-time observations with Nano-DIHM allow life cycle analysis of different particle contaminants in environmental water systems and can be applied as a tool for rapid response for spills and remediation of natural waters.

About the study:

“Novel Dynamic Technique, Nano-DIHM, for Rapid Detection of Oil, Heavy Metals, and Biological Spills in Aquatic Systems”, by Ryan Hall, Devendra Pal, and Parisa A. Ariya*, in Analytical Chemistry. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.analchem.2c02396