Carbon dots help sniff out nanoplastics in the air

An electronic nose has been developed that uses colourful carbon dot films to detect and quantify nanoplastics in the air. The work, led by chemist and nanotechnology researcher Raz Jelinek from Ben-Gurion University, Israel, was presented at the autumn meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS).

The new research builds on earlier work that Jelinek was involved with creating a sensor capable of detecting bacteria by the gases that they release. Jelinek’s team wondered if this simple and inexpensive carbon-dot-based technology would be able to detect nanoplastics in the air.