One of these vials is contaminated with nanoplastics. Chemistry can tell us which one

Twenty years ago, the University of Plymouth’s Richard Thompson coined the term ‘microplastics’ in a groundbreaking paper in Science magazine. Since then the research field has grown exponentially along with public awareness of the issue. Significant regulatory wins achieved during this time including UK, EU and US bans on adding plastic microbeads to face scrubs, shower gels and other cosmetic products that are washed down the drain after use.

And as scientists have become more confident about the sources and impacts of the microplastics visible to the naked eye, some have started to turn their attention to the smallest of the microplastics – nanoplastics. The term has no formal definition, but it is typically used to describe plastic pieces that are smaller than 1000nm. For comparison, microplastics are pieces of plastic less than 5mm.