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1. Direct observation and identification of nanoplastics in ocean water

   https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adh1675  

   Moon, Seunghyun; Martin, Leisha_M A; Kim, Seongmin; Zhang, Qiushi; Zhang, Renzheng; Xu, Wei; Luo, Tengfei (January 2024, Science Advances)

   Millions of tons of plastics enter the oceans yearly, and they can be fragmented by ultraviolet and mechanical means into nanoplastics. Here, we report the direct observation of nanoplastics in global ocean water leveraging a unique shrinking surface bubble deposition (SSBD) technique. SSBD involves optically heating plasmonic nanoparticles to form a surface bubble and leveraging the Marangoni flow to concentrate suspended nanoplastics onto the surface, allowing direct visualization using electron microscopy. With the plasmonic nanoparticles co-deposited in SSBD, the surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy effect is enabled for direct chemical identification of trace amounts of nanoplastics. In the water samples from two oceans, we observed nanoplastics made of nylon, polystyrene, and polyethylene terephthalate—all common in daily consumables. The plastic particles have diverse morphologies, such as nanofibers, nanoflakes, and ball-stick nanostructures. These nanoplastics may profoundly affect marine organisms, and our results can provide critical information for appropriately designing their toxicity studies. 

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2. Microplastics and nanoplastics in the marine-atmosphere environment

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-022-00292-x  

   Allen, Deonie; Allen, Steve; Abbasi, Sajjad; Baker, Alex; Bergmann, Melanie; Brahney, Janice; Butler, Tim; Duce, Robert A.; Eckhardt, Sabine; Evangeliou, Nikolaos; et al (June 2022, Nature Reviews Earth & Environment)
3. Atmospheric emission of nanoplastics from sewer pipe repairs

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-022-01219-9  

   Morales, Ana C.; Tomlin, Jay M.; West, Christopher P.; Rivera-Adorno, Felipe A.; Peterson, Brianna N.; Sharpe, Steven A.; Noh, Yoorae; Sendesi, Seyedeh M.; Boor, Brandon E.; Howarter, John A.; et al (November 2022, Nature Nanotechnology)
4. Accumulation of Nanoplastics in Biomphalaria glabrata Embryos and Transgenerational Developmental Effects

   https://doi.org/10.3390/environments12010028  

   Martin, Leisha; Armendarez, Carly; Merrill, Mackenzie; Huang, Chi; Xu, Wei (January 2025, Environments)

   (1) Background: Nanoplastics are emerging environmental pollutants with potential toxic effects on aquatic organisms. This study investigates the toxicity of NPs in Biomphalaria glabrata, a freshwater snail species widely used as a bioindicator species in ecotoxicology studies.; (2) Methods: We exposed three generations (F0–F2) of B. glabrata snail embryos to different sizes of polystyrene nanoparticles and assessed responses.; (3) Results: We observed severe effects on F0 to F2 B. glabrata embryos, including size-dependent (30 to 500 nm) increases in mortality rates, size and dosage-dependent (1 to 100 ppm) effects on hatching rates with concentration-dependent toxicity in the 30 nm exposure group. The F2 generation embryos appear to be most responsive to detoxification (CYP450) and pollutant metabolism (HSP70) at 48-h-post-treatment (HPT), while our developmental marker (MATN1) was highly upregulated at 96-HPT. We also report a particle-size-dependent correlation in HSP70 and CYP450 mRNA expression, as well as enhanced upregulation in the offspring of exposed snails. We also observed significant reductions in hatching rates for F2.; (4) Conclusions: These findings indicate that F2 generation embryos appear to exhibit increased stress from toxic substances inherited from their parents and grandparents (F1 and F0). This study provides valuable insights into the impact of plastic particulate pollution on multiple generations and highlights the importance of monitoring and mitigating plastic waste. 

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5. Rapid detection of microplastics and nanoplastics in seconds by mass spectrometry

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2025.138322  

   Xiao, Mengyuan; Yang, Yongqing; Alahmadi, Hanin; Harbolic, Allison; Moreno, Gina M; Yu, Terry; Liu, Jerry; Guo, Alex; Warner, Genoa R; Stapleton, Phoebe A; et al (August 2025, Journal of Hazardous Materials)