SYSTEMS AND METHODS RELATED TO PARTICLE DEPOSITION

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed for depositing particles on a substrate, the method comprising generating a thermal bubble on a surface of a substrate submerged in a medium having suspended particles such that the thermal bubble deposits the particles on the substrate; and deflating the thermal bubble such that the deposited particles are pulled toward a central position to form an island of particles.

Claims

1. A method, comprising: generating a thermal bubble on a surface of a substrate submerged in a medium having suspended particles such that the thermal bubble deposits the particles on the substrate; and deflating the thermal bubble such that the deposited particles are pulled toward a central position to form an island of particles.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the thermal bubble is generated by firing at least one laser.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein deflating the bubble comprises allowing the bubble to cool.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the particles are nanoparticles.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the particles are functionalized with biological molecules.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the temperature around the bubble does not denature the biological molecules.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the temperature of the bubble during the firing does not exceed 400 K.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the medium is aqueous.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein air is dissolved in the medium.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising incorporating the substrate into a chemical sensor.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the particle is polystyrene beads, quantum dots, or noble metal nanoparticles.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the deflating occurs on the order of hundreds of seconds.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating and the deflating occurs over an array of bubbles simultaneously.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the medium further comprises an analyte.

15. The method of claim 4, wherein the analyte is micro- or nano-plastics.

16. A product, comprising: a substrate; and an array of discrete islands, comprising a plurality of particles modified with heat sensitive molecules, on the substrate; wherein the heat sensitive molecules are not damaged.

17. The product of claim 15, wherein the height of the islands is on the order of 10 of nm to 10 μm.

18. The product of claim 16, wherein the lateral size of the islands is on the order of 10 of μm.

19. A product, comprising: a substrate; and a discrete island, comprising a plurality of sense enhancing particles and an analyte, on the substrate.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0010] The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate various exemplary embodiments and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the disclosed embodiments.

[0011] FIGS. 1A, 1B, 1C, and 1D show an illustration of one embodiment of Shrinking Surface Bubble Deposition including the steps of optical force deposition (FIG. 1A), TPCL deposition (FIG. 1B), bubble shrinking (FIG. 1C), and SSBD deposition (FIG. 1D).

[0012] FIG. 1E shows an image of the growing surface bubble under laser illumination. In the functionalized Au particle suspension, the laser beam excites Au particles due to the plasmonic resonance that results in the volumetric heating of the laser-irradiated volume in the suspension. The flow of particles is toward the TPCL of the surface bubble.

[0013] FIG. 2A is successive optical images from the side view of a typical shrinking bubble on the glass substrate.

[0014] FIG. 2B is a schematic illustration of the contact line contraction during bubble shrinkage.

[0015] FIG. 2C shows the results of contact width and contact angle as a function of time during a bubble shrinking process experiment.

[0016] FIG. 3A provides a schematic of testing the viability of the ssDNA using the ssDNA's hairpin structure that can use SB I as a reporter. Upon heating, the hairpin structure will open up and the SB I released.

[0017] FIG. 3B provides line profiles of the fluorescence signals from the SSBD-deposited ssDNA-AuNP islands in two heating cycles, involving 4 steps: introduction of SG I, release of SG I by heating at 50° C., reintroduction of SG I, and re-heating.

[0018] FIG. 3C provides average fluorescence intensities measured from 20 different SSBD-deposited spots, where the error bars represent the standard deviation.

[0019] FIG. 3D provides calculated scattering cross-section for bare core-shell AuNPs.

[0020] FIG. 3E provides the absorbance spectra of bare Au NPs and functionalized AuNPs measured in the suspension using UV-Vis equipment (V-670, Jasco). The peak absorption wavelength is about 785 nm, which can effectively absorb an 800 nm laser irradiation.

[0021] FIG. 4A—Top: Bright and dark field (inset) images of deposited patterns from the optical pressure deposition method (see FIG. 1A for schematic). Bottom—No fluorescence signal can be detected from the deposited spots.

[0022] FIG. 4B—Top: Optical microscope image shows deposited AuNPs from the contact line deposition around a steady state photothermal bubble (see FIG. 1B for schematic). Ring-like patterns correspond to the contact line of the thermal bubbles. Bottom-Fluorescence signal is detected using is exposure time.

[0023] FIG. 5A is an image of an array of 20 micropatterns produced by SSBD using ssDNA-functionalized AuNP suspension with an optical density (OD) of 0.75 at 800 nm. The peak radii of the bubbles are tuned by controlling the laser illumination times (between 1˜5 sec).

[0024] FIG. 5B is an SEM image of the deposited spot, showing highly concentrated and closely packed particles.

[0025] FIG. 5C is a plot of initial radii of bubbles vs. their shrinkage time.

[0026] FIG. 5D shows bubble lifetimes as a function of peak volume. The line fitting indicates that the lifetime shows power-three dependence.

[0027] FIG. 5E shows roundness of fabricated patterns as defined in Equation 4. Three different concentrations (OD of 0.75, 0.32 and 0.15 at 800 nm) of pre-functionalized particle solutions are studied. Inset illustrates how the pattern size (L.sub.m) is defined, and the roundness is the ratio between the black area and the area of the peripheric circle (circle).

[0028] FIG. 5F shows the correlation between surface area of generated bubbles and SSBD-deposited pattern areas.

[0029] FIG. 5G shows a parity plot for pattern area predicted using Eq. S1.

[0030] FIG. 5H shows a roundness histogram and normal distribution curve that show the distribution of all data of OD 0.75, 0.32 and 0.15.

[0031] FIG. 6A shows a schematic of the SSBD process, where a thermal bubble is generated by laser heating creating a flow to collect colloidal particles and deposit them to a high-density spot after the bubble shrinks and vanishes.

[0032] FIG. 6B is an optical setup for the SSBD process.

[0033] FIG. 7A is an optical microscope image of a Si substrate.

[0034] FIG. 7B is a drop casting of a engineered PS (240 nm) solution with a relatively high concentration of 5 ppm on the Si substrate.

[0035] FIG. 7C is a drop casting of the PS (240 nm) solution (5 ppm) on a glass substrate.

[0036] FIG. 7D is a Raman spectra of bare Si surface, PS on Si and PS on glass. No PS Raman peaks could be observed from these spectra due to the lack of the SERS effect. Only silicon peaks could be observed. With SERS enabled by SSBD, PS could be detected with a concentration of 0.1 ppm (see FIG. 16).

[0037] FIG. 8A is the calculated optical cross-sections of an Ag NP.

[0038] FIG. 8B is a temperature profile of a single Ag NP in water environment.

[0039] FIG. 9A is a Ag NP (10 nm) suspension before and after mixing with seawater. Mixing with seawater changes the suspension to a darker color.

[0040] FIG. 9B is the measured absorbance of the pure Ag NP suspension and the Ag NP suspension mixed with seawater.

[0041] FIG. 10A is an overlay of the control sample and Raman mapping at 1000 cm.sup.−1 with 1200-groove/mm grating.

[0042] FIG. 10B is an SSBD spot deposited using the mixture suspension of Ag NP and seawater. It shows the overlay image of the SSBD spot and Raman mapping at 1000 cm.sup.−1.

[0043] FIG. 10C is a typical SERS spectra detected from the seawater and control samples.

[0044] FIG. 11A are SEM images of the whole SSBD spot (left) and nanofibers co-deposited with Ag NPs (right).

[0045] FIG. 11B is an EDX elemental mapping overlaid with the SEM image.

[0046] FIG. 11C is contrasting spectra showing the nanofibers are of a carbon nature.

[0047] FIG. 11D is the obtained SERS spectrum (top) shows several peaks corresponding to Nylon reference peaks (bottom).

[0048] FIG. 11E are the TEM images of nanofibers showing hetero-aggregation and adsorption of nanoplastics, as indicated by the arrows. The TEM sample was prepared using SSBD in pristine seawater without Ag NPs, where the carbon TEM grid absorbed laser energy and generated a bubble.

[0049] FIG. 12A is an EDX elemental map overlaid with the SEM image.

[0050] FIG. 12B is contrasting EDX spectra of two points respectively from carbon-rich and Ag reach regions.

[0051] FIG. 12C is an SEM image of a flake-like plastic particle.

[0052] FIG. 12D is an SEM image of a plastic particle with a neck.

[0053] FIG. 12E is a SERS spectrum obtained from the X.sub.1 site in FIG. 12A compared against the Raman spectrum from a commercial coffee-cup lid. Wider spectra are presented in FIG. 16.

[0054] FIG. 13 are SEM images of nanoplastics observed from different water samples, which show the diverse morphologies of nanoplastics in environmental water and how they are distinct from laboratory-synthesized plastic NPs.

[0055] FIG. 14A are SEM images of SSBD deposition (center) and ball-stick nanostructures for the Long Beach sample. X.sub.1 indicates the location characterized by SERS.

[0056] FIG. 14B are SERS spectra of the surface seawater sample from Long Beach (middle) and 311 m-deep seawater from the Gulf of Mexico (top). In comparison is the PET reference Raman spectrum obtained from a commercial water bottle (bottom).

[0057] FIG. 14C is a SEM image of the PET discovered in the deep seawater, which is also the location for SERS measurement.

[0058] FIG. 15A is an SEM image of SSBD deposition spot from the 311 m-deep seawater sample from the Gulf of Mexico.

[0059] FIG. 15B is an exterior morphologies of a nanoplastic particle and a biomolecule. SEM images were taken after fully drying the sample for 2 weeks in the ambient condition.

[0060] FIG. 15C is the SEM sample stage was tilted at 45° to observe the morphological difference between the two materials.

[0061] FIG. 15D is a comparison of Raman spectra. Although the spectrum resembles the PET sample obtained from the Gulf of Mexico, it also contains some of the characteristics of PS, so it was classified as unidentified nanoparticles and can be a PET particle with PS oligomers attached to it.

[0062] FIG. 15E is a top view of another PET nanostructure from the Long Beach sample.

[0063] FIG. 15F is a tilted view of the sample in FIG. 15E.

[0064] FIG. 15G is an EDS carbon mapping of the sample in FIG. 15E.

[0065] FIG. 16 is Raman spectra of a reference PS sample and water samples from different locations. Bottom/first line: PS Raman spectrum obtained from a coffee-cup lid. Raman exposure time was 10 s, and data acquisition was performed 10 times at one location to increase the signal-to-noise ratio. Second line: SERS spectrum of engineered PS NPs (240 nm, 0.1 ppm) co-deposited with Ag NPs (10 nm) by SSBD. Third (Long Beach, Calif.), fourth (Gulf of Mexico), fifth (Shenzhen, China), and sixth (Ulsan, Korea) lines are SERS spectra of seawater obtained from different sites, but no PS particles could be observed from SEM in these samples.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENTS

[0066] Reference will now be made in detail to the embodiments of the present disclosure, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts.

[0067] The systems, devices, and methods disclosed herein are described in detail by way of examples and with reference to the figures. The examples discussed herein are examples only and are provided to assist in the explanation of the apparatuses, devices, systems, and methods described herein. None of the features or components shown in the drawings or discussed below should be taken as mandatory for any specific implementation of any of these devices, systems, or methods unless specifically designated as mandatory.

[0068] Also, for any methods described, regardless of whether the method is described in conjunction with a flow diagram, it should be understood that unless otherwise specified or required by context, any explicit or implicit ordering of steps must be performed in the order presented but instead may be performed in a different order or parallel.

[0069] As used herein, the term “exemplary” is used in the sense of “example,” rather than “ideal.” Moreover, the terms “a” and “an” herein do not denote a limitation of quantity, but rather denote the presence of one or more of the referenced items.

[0070] The ability to manipulate nanoparticles (NPs) decorated by functional molecules, or particles in general, is important for a wide range of applications, such as photonics, nanocomposites, energy conversion, and biosensors. For example, advanced biosensing techniques, exemplified by quantum dot Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) and surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), are fundamentally based on the interaction between particles and functional molecules. Moreover, as point-of-care (POC) assays become increasingly demanded, diagnosis techniques based on miniaturized microfluidic chips with advanced sensors are being developed aimed at analyzing and quantifying small amounts of analytes. One challenge is that for nucleic acid sensors, exponential amplification reactions are usually required to make low target concentrations detectable, but these amplification reactions can be incompatible with POC assays due to the time-consuming nature and the requirement of sophisticated laboratory equipment. In addition, such reactions are not applicable to other targets like proteins, ions and lipids. A more generally applicable strategy is to concentrate targets in the analytes and deposit them onto a surface with pre-fabricated detectors. Depending on the sensing mechanism of a chip, fabrication processes using expensive equipment such as vacuum deposition, dry/wet etching and lithography may be required, which inevitably impose cost and throughput barriers for large scale applications.

[0071] Techniques using nanochannels, magnetic nanobeads, evaporative self-assembly, and Langmuir-Blodgett films have been explored to concentrate and deposit suspended particles to surfaces, but depositing them precisely to designated locations, which is important for applications like multiplex sensors, are still very challenging. In contrast, fluid flow around a photothermally generated surface bubble is a promising deposition method with precision.

[0072] One way of generating surface bubbles is through light absorption of metallic nanostructures fabricated on a surface. This can be accomplished with a spatially localized laser beam that is capable of heating-up the focal area so much that a vapor bubble is created and the temperature gradient around the bubble leads to a Marangoni flow. Such a flow near the bubble draws the particles in the suspension to the vapor-liquid interface acting as a trap to capture the particles. The flow eventually pushes the particles toward the three-phase contact line (TPCL) thereby depositing the particles on the surface. A TPCL occurs when a system is in steady state with three-phases (e.g., solid, liquid, and gas) and is motionless as there is an equilibrium of the tangential forces caused by the interfacial and surface tensions. This photothermal bubble deposition process can be used to deposit materials like polystyrene beads, quantum dots and noble metal nanoparticles in a medium.

[0073] As used herein, the term “medium” refers to a liquid. In certain embodiments the medium is an aqueous liquid. Other mediums include organic solvents.

[0074] As used herein, the term “particle” refers to solid particles which are suspensible in the given medium. In specific embodiments, the particles are metallic nanoparticles functionalized with DNA molecules or plastic particles. The particles can be nanoparticles: having a diameter between 1 nm and 1000 nm. The particles can also be microparticles: having a diameter between 1 μm and 1000 μm.

[0075] As used herein, the term “island” refers to particles deposited in a pile with high concentrations. In some embodiments, the height of the islands is on the order of 10 of nm to 10 μm. The lateral size of the islands can be on the order of 10 of μm. In general, islands can have any shape, e.g., an irregular shape, and islands can be defined as the product of particles on a substrate moving from a relatively low density to a relatively high density. In some embodiments, the density of the particles increases by more than 10×, e.g., 15×, 25×, 50×, 75×, 100×, 250×, 500×, 750×, and 1000×. In general, the density of particles increases between 10× and 1000×. The density increase can depend on the specific particle (e.g., size), medium, and size of the thermal bubble used.

[0076] In general, the medium contains one or more gasses dissolved therein. In one embodiment the gas is air. In other embodiments the medium can also contain other dissolvable gases.

[0077] As used herein, the term “biological molecule” refers to the class of molecules as known in the art. These molecules can be free-floating or attached molecules on the particle or on other constituents in the medium. In some embodiments the biological molecule is ssDNA.

[0078] Traditional bubble deposition involves using high-power lasers (˜O(100) mW) and light-absorbing plasmonic structures to generate thermal bubbles. However, other methods of generating thermal bubbles are possible. For example, using a resistive heater on top, within, or below a substrate where deposition of the particles is desired. While the water temperature around the thermal bubbles under laser illumination is moderately high (˜350 K), the laser covered area can have much higher temperatures. In addition, the suspended particles in the solution can experience intense heating and even supercavitation if the laser wavelength is at their surface plasmon resonance (SPR) peak, which would detach any functional molecules from the particles surface immediately. Nevertheless, the Marangoni flow and surface tension, especially at the TPCL, of the thermal bubbles have been studied for capturing and depositing biomarkers like DNA, proteins and microbes. However, to avoid damaging the biomolecules by the high temperature close to the laser-heated area, the size of the deposited region of biomarkers is usually a few times larger than the laser beam size, reducing the concentration ratio and thus sensing signal strength. The thermal problem involved in the thermal bubble deposition technique limits its application in direct deposition.

[0079] The present disclosure includes how a thermal bubble can be made compatible with the direct deposition of particles if the shrinking phase of the bubble is leveraged by turning off the heat, e.g., the photo excitation. This process is referred to as Shrinking Surface Bubble Deposition (SSBD). The SSBD technique demonstrated herein is useful and applicable to a wide range of applications, such as: detection of epidemic/pandemic infectious disease, cancers, chemical/biological weapons, etc.

[0080] As discussed above, particle movement and trapping around a thermal bubble is associated with factors like thermophoresis and convective flow. With respect to laser heating, the volume above the bubble can be hotter than the bottom due to plasmonic heating of the suspended particles. This is illustrated in FIG. 1E. Based on previous numerical studies and experimental results, the volumetric heating leads to a heat-capillary convection flow, as shown in FIG. 1E. This flow direction is different from other studies that used pre-defined nanostructures. The flow directions in the particle suspension is toward the TPCL of the surface bubble. This is evident by tracking the movement of the glowing dots, where the glowing dots (moving toward the surface bubble) correspond to the scattered light from the plasmonic Au particles. Here, the effects of volumetric heating and poor heat conductivity of gas inside the bubble were considered.

[0081] This temperature gradient forms a surface tension gradient along the bubble surface leading to a Marangoni flow around the bubble. This flow exerts drag force on the suspended particles and carries them towards the bubble surface. When the particles are brought to close proximity of the bubble, the competition between the surface tension and pressure difference captures and traps the particles at the bubble surface. The force due to surface tension pulls the particles towards the center of the bubble, while the force caused by the pressure difference at the bubble/water interface pushes the particles outward. Their balance causes the particles to be trapped. The Marangoni flow at the bubble surface would further drive the trapped particles to the TPCL. If the bubble is then detached from the surface, the trapped particles are deposited on the surface as a ring. This is the traditional mechanism of TPCL deposition using a steady state photothermal surface bubble.

[0082] However, in SSBD the bubble does not detach. Rather, heating is removed, e.g., the laser irradiation is turned off, after the bubble reaches a certain size. With the heat supply absent, the bubble, substrate and the surrounding liquid cool down, and the bubble starts to shrink. After the bubble eventually vanishes, a highly concentrated island with closely packed particles is deposited on the surface.

[0083] A general schematic of one embodiment of this process is provided in FIGS. 1A-D, as follows: (a) optical pressure force drives suspended particles to the surface; (b) laser-generated thermal bubble and the flow surrounding it drives suspended particles to the three-phase contact line (TPCL); (c) laser/heat source turned off to allow bubble shrinking which leads to TPCL contraction; and (d) concentrated particle island deposited by SSBD due to the complete contraction of TPCL as bubble vanishes. FIG. 1D inset is a representative scanning electron microscopy image of the SSBD spot (scale bar: 200 nm).

[0084] At least two stages in the shrinking of the surface bubble were observed, corresponding to vapor condensation and gas dissolving back to liquid water. The first stage is very fast, on the order of milliseconds. The second stage, gas molecules dissolving back to water, was found to dominate the shrinking process and the time scale can be on the order of hundreds of seconds. For instance, a bubble of 40 μm in diameter lasts about ˜300 s before it eventually vanishes. FIG. 2A. Notably it was found that in the second stage, the bubble shrinkage is accompanied by the contact-line contraction. FIG. 2B. Here, the contact line (w) and the radius of surface bubble (a) are independent parameters. If the bubble collapses without contact line contraction, the particles adsorbed on the TPCL should have a ring shape when they are deposited. In the case of SSBD, the deposited site has a filled circular shape.

[0085] It has been found that the decrease in contact line width is not continuous. As illustrated schematically in FIG. 2B and shown quantitatively in FIG. C, the bubble initially maintains a nearly constant contact line width while the contact angle increases gradually. When the contact angle reaches a critical value, θ_cr (55±1° in the experimental results), the contact line width starts to decrease rapidly. This phenomenon can be further explained by analyzing the force balance at the TPCL via Young's equation:

γ.sub.SL+γ.sub.LG cos θ=γ.sub.SG, for θ≤θ.sub.cr  (1)

γ.sub.SL+γ.sub.LG cos θ<γ.sub.SG, for θ>θ.sub.cr  (2)

[0086] where γ.sub.SL, γ.sub.LG and γ.sub.SG represent the interface energy of solid-liquid, liquid-gas and solid-gas, respectively. FIG. 2C. The bubble tends to maintain a spherical shape. Therefore, when the surface bubble shrinks, the contact line should tend to contract to keep the bubble as spherical as possible. However, the contact line is pinned and thus the bubble becomes increasingly non-spherical (i.e., liquid-gas surface energy, γ.sub.LG, increases), which leads the contact angle to increase and the surface tension of bubble to build up (Equation 1). This continues until the contact line can no longer be pinned by the pinning forces, which eventually leads to the contraction of the contact line (Equation 2). As shown in Equation 2, when the contact angle is larger than the critical angle on the hydrophilic substrate, γ.sub.SG becomes dominant. This leads to the contraction of the contact line (FIG. 2B) and the particles adsorbed on the TPCL are pulled inward.

[0087] Based on the discovered mechanism, the particles captured by the TCPL can be piled into a concentrated spot as the bubble shrinks to vanish. Moreover, the whole process can happen without laser heating. This maintains the viability of the heat sensitive molecules attached to the particles.

Laser Based Shrinking Surface Bubble Deposition (SSBD) and Sensing with Biological Molecules

[0088] The applicability of SSBD technique for bio-sensing applications is demonstrated by directly depositing single-stranded DNA (ssDNA)-functionalized core-shell AuNPs onto a bare glass substrate.

[0089] In general, using NPs made of a silica-core (˜100 nm in diameter) and a Au-shell (˜10 nm in thickness) were used since they have a SPR peak (˜785 nm) matching the wavelength of the excitation laser. See FIGS. 3D-E. The ssDNA was conjugated to the AuNP surface through the gold-sulfur bonding chemistry. FIG. 3A. To achieve this bonding, the ssDNA oligonucleotides were modified with thiol groups at the 3′ end (Integrated DNA Technologies, Inc.), which binds to the gold surface according to the salt aging protocol. The ssDNA consists of 35 bases and 57.1% of GC content, and it is capable of folding so as to form a hairpin loop through complementary hydrogen bonding. FIG. 3A. The presence of this secondary structure (i.e., hairpin) at room temperature was beneficial for the detection purpose because it can provide a binding site of intercalating dyes, such as SYBR Green I (SG I), to confer fluorescence emission. SG I (Invitrogen) is a staining dye that specifically binds to double-stranded DNA and emits green fluorescence. The hairpin structure of our ssDNA provides such a binding site (FIG. 3A) as predicted using the IDT SciTools. The estimated free energy (ΔG) is −1.75 kcal/mole and the melting temperature (T.sub.m) is 45.9° C. The spontaneous hairpin structures at room temperature were designed to observe florescence signals with SG I added, if the ssDNA survives the SSBD process. The viability of the ssDNA can be further verified by thermal cycling above the T.sub.m, which will break the complementary hydrogen bonds to release the fluorescent dye that was intercalated at the hairpin loop, leading to a decrease in fluorescence intensity.

[0090] To further elucidate the mechanism behind the SSBD process, videography (30 frames/sec) was used to characterize the bubble shrinking process.

[0091] 1. Preparation of Pre-Functionalized AuNP

[0092] Reduction of thiol-modified DNA was performed using Tris(2-carboxyethyl)phosphine hydrochloride (TCEP) (20 mM). Blending DNA with TCEP reduction agent, the solution was incubated at room temperature for 3 hours. The cleaved DNA was then purified by a NAP-5 column (illustra NAP Columns, GE Healthcare). The purified DNAs were injected to a core/shell AuNP solution (Auroshell, Nanospectra Biosciences, Inc., number density of 2×10.sup.9/ml) containing 0.01 M phosphate buffer (PB) and 0.01% sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). The DNA and AuNPs solution was then incubated at room temperature for 20 min. Concentration of sodium chloride (NaCl) in the DNA/AuNPs solution was increased to 0.05 M by adding a NaCl stock solution (2 M). The solution was then sonicated for 10 sec and incubated for 20 min at room temperature. This process was repeated until the concentration of salt in the solution reached 1 M. The final solution was stored at room temperature for 30 hours. After the incubation step, the suspension containing salt and functionalized AuNPs was centrifuged and the supernatant was removed. The NPs were then resuspended in DI water. A total of 5 supernatant removals were carried out by repeating the washing process.

[0093] 2. Optical Setup for Nanoparticle Deposition

[0094] An 800-nm femtosecond pulsed laser (linear polarized Gaussian beam) with a repetition rate of 80.7 MHz and a pulse duration of 200 fs was focused in the pre-functionalized NP suspension using a 20× objective lens with a numerical aperture of 0.42. 2 mL of functionalized AuNPs was dispersed in the cuvette. The length of the laser beam path in the cuvette was fixed at 4 mm using a PDMS holder. Commercial microscope slide glass (Superfrost® Plus Micro Slide, VWR international, LLC.) was used as a substrate for all experiments.

[0095] Directing the laser beam into the AuNP suspension, the optical pressure drove the irradiated particles toward the surface. Notably, the optical pressure-driven particle deposition allowed generation of surface bubbles without the need of pre-fabricated light absorbers. These deposited particles then acted as surface heaters as the particles continued to convert optical energy into thermal energy and further worked as a nucleation site for bubbles.

[0096] During experimentation, it was found that the time delay between laser irradiation and bubble nucleation was ˜1 s when using a laser power density of ˜8.8 mW/μm.sup.2 at the focal plane, which overlaps with the surface of the substrate. The laser had a wavelength of 800 nm, which matches the SPR peak of the AuNP used in the experiment. With continued heating of the surface particles, the surface bubble grew due to both water vaporization and dissolved gas diffusion into the cavity.

[0097] 3. Validation Test Using Intercalating Dye

[0098] SYBR™ Green I (10,000× concentrate in DMSO, Invitrogen) was diluted (1:50) with a phosphate buffered saline (PBS) 1× solution. The deposited patterns were stained using 100 μL of diluted SYBR solution for 20 min. After washing with PBS 4× solution and DI water, the patterns were immersed in a 100 μL of PBS 1× solution. Images were taken by an inverted fluorescence microscope (Eclipse Ti, Nikon). In the validation test, the pre-warmed PBS 1× solution was filled to remove the intercalating die from the DNA and the patterned samples were heated on a hotplate (50° C.) for 15 min.

[0099] As shown in FIG. 3B, green fluorescence signals were apparent from the SSBD-deposited particle spots after SG I was introduced to the solution. When the solution was heated to 50° C., the signals almost disappear, and when cooled down and SG I re-introduced, fluorescence is seen again despite reduced intensity. FIG. 3C quantitatively shows the average fluorescence intensity from an array of 20 SSBD-deposited spots, where the error bars are the standard deviation. These results indicate that the signals before and after heating are significantly different. There was an intensity decrease in the second thermal cycle (from ˜14.5 to ˜9.5) which indicated that the SSBD technique is even less damaging than heating at 50° C. for the biomolecules. These results confirmed that the SSBD process can maintain the viability of the functional molecules on particles, which makes the technique compatible to biological applications.

SSBD Versus Optical Pressure Deposition and TCPL Deposition

[0100] SSBD was compared to two deposition mechanisms mentioned previously (i.e., optical pressure (OP) deposition and contact line (i.e., TCPL) deposition).

[0101] In the optical pressure deposition (FIG. 1A), the optical force on the particles drives them to the surface and all deposited particles have been exposed directly to the laser irradiation. During OP deposition the laser power was reduced (˜3.6 mW/μm.sup.2 at the focal plane) so that no surface bubble was generated within the period of laser irradiation. To produce dense patterns on the glass substrate as shown in FIG. 4A (top), the optical shutter was opened and closed 30 times at the same location, after which a pattern of about ˜15 μm in diameter, similar to the laser diameter (˜12 μm), was produced. Survivability of the biological molecules on the AuNP surfaces after deposition was examined by intercalating dye, but a fluorescence signal could not be detected. FIG. 4A, bottom. This result agreed with expectations that the high absorption cross-section (as shown in FIG. 1E: ˜2.3×10.sup.−14 m.sup.2 for the core-shell AuNPs solution) of AuNPs may induce extreme heating of the NPs and even nanocavitation when directly irradiated by the laser at the SPR peak, and this would result in the destruction of ssDNA attached on the particle surface.

[0102] The contact line deposition mechanism leverages the fluid flow around the thermal bubble to capture and immobilize suspended particles at the TCPL (FIG. 1B). Although this technique is efficient in trapping particles, maintaining the bubble with continuous laser heating is not desirable as the bubble area is kept at a relatively high temperature which may lead to degradation of biomolecules. In addition, since the contact ring is usually a few times larger than the laser spot, the concentration of the deposited particles will be low compared to the SSBD-deposited spots. As shown in FIG. 4B, the deposited particle areas are 3-5 times larger than the laser spot size (˜12 μm) depending on the sizes of bubbles when they detach from the surface. As expected, the patterns of the deposited particles are close to rings with higher density at the periphery. The fluorescence signal intensity from the deposited particles (FIG. 4B, bottom) was apparently lower than that from the SSBD-deposited spots (FIG. 3B), which can be partially attributed to the fact that the contact line deposited NPs spread over a larger area and thus lower density, besides thermal degradation of the bio-molecules.

Controlling the SSBD Process

[0103] The SSBD process can be intensified by the influence of various experimental factors. For example, a lower-temperature bulk fluid may act to enhance the Marangoni flow by causing a larger temperature difference at the bubble boundary, and a change in air solubility may affect the bubble size. Alternatively, allowing for a sufficient time until one bubble process is completed to avoid heating of the bulk fluid.

[0104] When implementing the SSBD for mass production of sensors, the lifetime of bubble is a factor to consider for the fabrication time scale. Production can involve sequential deposition or parallel deposition. The lifetime of bubbles with different peak sizes, are achieved by varying the illumination time (1-5 s) of the incident laser. To test mass production, a 5×4 microarray of patterns was fabricated on the glass substrate with the pitch of ˜100 μm. FIG. 5A. The SSBD deposited particles are dense and closely packed (e.g., FIG. 5B).

[0105] Assuming ideal gas and diffusion-governed process, the lifetime of a microbubble (T.sub.B) can be estimated as:

[00001]$\begin{array}{cc}{\tau }_B=\frac{P_{0}K}{6\mathrm{RTD}\gamma }{a}^3& \left(3\right)\end{array}$

where P.sub.0 is ambient pressure, γ (72×10.sup.−3 N˜m.sup.−1) is surface tension, K is Henry's coefficient, R is ideal gas constant (8.31 J.Math.mol.sup.−1.Math.K.sup.−1), T is temperature of the microbubble and D is diffusion coefficient. Based on measurements (FIG. 5C), the lifetime of microbubble estimated from videography scales linearly with the volume (i.e., α.sup.3) of the bubble as shown in FIG. 5D, which is consistent with the above equation. The SSBD process can have a time scale of seconds to several minutes, depending on the size of the bubble. In mass production, one may generate a large array of bubbles and let them shrink simultaneously to increase productivity.

[0106] The size of bubble can directly influence the size of the eventually deposited particles spot size. In a similar vein, controlling the concentration of the particles in the solution provides another route to tune the amount of particles the bubble can capture. To analyze the above two controlling strategies, three different concentrations of functionalized AuNP suspensions, including optical densities (OD) of 0.75, 0.32 and 0.15 at 800 nm. At each concentration, 20 bubbles with different peak sizes were produced. The sizes of the bubbles were determined through videography analysis, and the images of the deposited AuNP patterns were observed using an optical microscope. To define the size of the pattern, roundness (FIG. 5E) is first introduced as:

[00002]$\begin{array}{cc}\mathrm{Roundness}\left(\%\right)=\frac{4\times A_{\mathrm{Au}}}{\pi L_m^2}& \left(4\right)\end{array}$

[0107] where A.sub.Au is the area of the AuNP pattern, and L.sub.m is the length of the major axis, which is used to denote the pattern size. FIG. 5E shows that the patterns all have roundness greater than 50% with a mean value of ˜80% and a spread of ˜20% (see FIG. 5H for the histogram of roundness). It was also observed that when the particle concentration increases, the average size of the spots increases but the average roundness does not change significantly. FIG. 5F shows the pattern area as a function of the calculated surface area of bubble. For each concentration, pattern area and bubble surface area generally follow a linear relation, with the slope of the linear fit increases with the concentration of the particles. The fitting parameters are shown in Table 1 for the three linear curves.

TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 Fitting parameters for the surface area of bubble and pattern area shown in FIG. 5F. Linear fitting OD at 800 nm Slope Intercept R.sup.2 0.75 0.0224 −12.2 0.789 0.32 0.0100 −0.3 0.926 0.15 0.0045 7.1 0.786

[0108] Larger bubble surfaces can capture more particles from the suspension, which are eventually brought to the TPCL before it contracts to a concentrated spot upon bubble vanishing. As a result, the SSBD-deposited spot area can scale linearly with the surface area of bubble as observed in FIG. 5F. A simple model relating the SSBD spot size, OD and bubble surface area can also be obtained by fitting to all data in FIG. 5F, and the model is shown as Equation S1:

z(x,=0.03xy+2.1, if xy>0  (S1)

where, z and x are pattern area and surface area of bubble, respectively, and y is OD. The parity plot for pattern area predicted using Eq. S1 is provided in FIG. 5G.

Direct Observation of Nanoplastics in Ocean Water Using SSBD

[0109] Plastics production surpasses all other synthetic materials globally, with 5-13 million tons entering the oceans every year, posing serious environmental challenges. Plastics in the environment can be fragmented by UV irradiation and mechanical means into micro- or even nano-particles. While microplastics have been detected in ocean water, nanoplastics have not been unequivocally detected in the ocean. However, detection of such nanoplastics may be possible using SSBD.

[0110] Nanoplastics research is an emerging field. Toxicological investigations into nanoplastics should address the route of exposure (e.g., inhalation, ingestion, or dermal penetration), concentrations, and particle morphology. Little evidence regarding exposure levels is currently available, and hurdles with separation, identification, and quantification of environmental nanoparticles have made appropriate studies difficult to design.

[0111] Although there is no consensus on the size of “microplastics” and “nanoplastics” some have defined microplastics as ranging from 1-5,000 μm and nanoplastics with a size less than 1 μm.

[0112] The toxicity of micro- and nanoplastics to living organisms is found to be inversely related to particle size. For example, when laboratory-synthesized PS particles are ingested, nanoparticles (NPs) have a more negative impact on growth and reproduction than microparticles. Additionally, in a laboratory setting, while microplastics were not found in fish brains after exposure, nanoscale particles were observed to cross the blood-brain-barrier and accumulate in fish brains, causing behavioral disorders and oxidative DNA damage.

[0113] Indeed, of the 5 to 13 million tons of plastics entering the oceans annually, less than 300 thousand are estimated to be floating on the surface. This discrepancy may be partially attributed to undetected colloidal nanoplastics or the deposition of aggregates to the seabed following a loss of colloidal stability. To date, no method appears sensitive enough to detect low concentrations of nanoplastics in the environment.

[0114] At most, Ter Halle, A. et al. Nanoplastic in the North Atlantic subtropical gyre. Environ. Sci. Technol. 51, 13689-13697 (2017) reported finding nanoplastics in the North Atlantic Ocean subtropical gyre using pyrolysis-coupled gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (Pyr-GC/MS). From the spectra, Ter Halle observed signatures of polyethylene (PE), PS, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Ter Halle used a nano-membrane ultrafiltration technique prior to Pyr-GC/MS characterization. However, the filtration technique may have artificially reduced the detected abundance by removing high aspect ratio nanoplastics (e.g., nanofibers) and losing particles via attachment to the filter. More importantly, in the absence of direct visualization, the plastic signature in the Pyr-GC/MS spectrum can not be definitively attributed to nanoplastics. It could, instead, be attributable to oligomers: styrene oligomers, short fragments of PS, have been detected in seawater from the West Coast of the U.S.

[0115] Rather, direct visualization of nanoplastic particles is needed to confirm their existence in the ocean and their morphological characters. The morphological characters often greatly influence the toxicity of the nanomaterials. For example, it is found that high aspect ratio nanotubes, despite their micrometer length, can have significant toxicity implications on mice. Using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) the experiments shows the morphology of the nanoplastic particles, use energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy to confirm their carbon nature, and use surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) to identify their polymer chemistry. These characterizations are made possible by the unique SSBD technique, which captures colloidal nanoplastics in the water samples and concentrates them on a substrate surface. FIG. 6A.

[0116] Samples of ocean water were collected from locations on the coastlines of China, South Korea, and the United States, including deep (>300 m) in the Gulf of Mexico, as indicated in Table 2.

TABLE-US-00002 TABLE 2 Water collection sites Water Particle detected Latitude/ depth SERS SEM Geographical location Longitude collection detected? detected? USA California Long Beach: 33°45′40.0″N/ Surface Nylon Yes Pier Point 118°11′45.6″W Harbor Marina Del 33°57′43.9″N/ Surface PS No Rey: Main 118°27′25.2″W channel Massachusetts Dartmouth: 41°35′10.5″N/ Surface PS No Apponagansett 70°57′14.5″W Bay Texas Cole Park 27°46′24.2″N/ Surface PS Yes 97°23′19.0″W Gulf of FGRR45 27°45′57.6″N/ Surface PS No Mexico (XR2 2204) 93°37′48.0″W 311 m PET Yes South Ulsan Daewangam 35°29′21″N/ Surface PS No Korea Park 129°26′23.5″E Jeju Island Yongduam 33°30′58.9″N/ Surface PET Yes Rock 126°30′43.6″E China Shenzhen Longgang 22°36′12.3″N/ Surface PS No 114°21′26.3″E Unidentified Nanofiber *Surface denotes less than 1.5 m.
Nanoplastics were identified with a variety of compositions, including polycaprolactam (Nylon), polystyrene (PS), and polyethylene terephthalate (PET)— all commonly used daily consumables (e.g., textiles, coffee cup lids and water bottles). The plastic particles found possessed diverse morphologies, such as nanofibers, nanoflakes, and ball-stick nanostructures.

[0117] In the SSBD process, the as-collected seawater samples were mixed with silver (Ag) NP suspensions with a 1:4 volume ratio. A laser was then directed into the aqueous sample, and due to the laser heating of the Ag particles, a thermal bubble is generated on the surface of a glass substrate. FIG. 6A and FIG. 6B. The thermofluidic flow around the bubble draws colloidal particles to the bubble surface and deposits the colloidal particles to the three-phase contact line (FIG. 6A). When the surface bubble grows to ˜50 μm in diameter, laser heating is stopped to allow the bubble to shrink until it vanishes. As the bubble shrinks, the contact line contracts, piling the collected particles into a high-density spot, which greatly increases the possibility of finding the colloidal particles in SEM (inset image in FIG. 6B). During this process, the plasmonic Ag NPs in the suspension are co-deposited with nanoplastics, enabling the SERS effect that enhances the Raman signal by orders of magnitude to allow the identification of the chemistry of trace amount of nanoplastics (Method). Without the co-deposited Ag NPs, no clear Raman signals of nanoplastics could be detected. See FIG. 7A-D.

[0118] In particular, the seawater samples for SSBD were prepared by mixing 800 μL of Ag NP suspension (10 nm, 0.02 mg/ml supplied in 2 mM sodium citrate, Abs. 390-400 nm, Thermo Scientific Chemicals) and 200 μL of as-collected seawater. The solution was contained in a quartz cuvette with a glass slide inserted therein (FIG. 6B). An 800-nm femtosecond pulsed laser (Spectra Physics, Tsunami) with a repetition rate of 80.7 MHz and a pulse duration of 200 fs was directed to the sample using a 20× objective lens with a numerical aperture of 0.42. The laser was illuminated for ˜10 seconds to generate photothermal surface bubbles on the glass substrate. The plasmonic effect produced by Ag NPs with a size of 10 nm, which has a surface plasmon resonance of ˜400 nm, is too weak to create a photothermal bubble unless long laser irradiation is used. FIG. 8A-B.

[0119] The optical cross-sections (σ) of the Ag NP as shown in FIG. 8A were calculated by COMSOL Multiphysics. A spherical NP with a radius (R) is surrounded by water domain including the Perfect Matching Layer (PML). The PML layer absorbs all outgoing wave energy without impedance mismatch that can cause stray reflections at the boundary. To estimate the temperature profile of the Ag NP in the water (FIG. 8B) at the given experimental excitation wavelength, the analytical solution for the 1-D heat conduction equation is used:

[00003]$\begin{array}{cc}T\left(r\right)=T\left(\infty \right)+\frac{P_0}{4{\mathrm{\pi \kappa }}_{\mathrm{water}}r}\mathrm{for}r>R,& \left(\mathrm{S5}\right)\end{array}$

[0120] where T(∞) [K] is ambient temperature, P.sub.0 is the heat power dissipated in the NP, κ.sub.water is the thermal conductivity of water, R is the radius of the NP, and r is the radial coordinate. The heating power dissipated in the NP is given by P.sub.0=σ.sub.absI, where σ.sub.abs is the absorption cross-section of NP at the excitation wavelength obtained from FIG. 8A and I (=1.76×10.sup.6 W/cm.sup.2) is the power density of the excitation laser.

[0121] When mixed with seawater (pH=8.1), Ag NPs agglomerate and the overall light absorbance increases (FIGS. 9A-B), allowing bubble formation. (As seawater water is added into the Ag NP suspension, the resonance peak at about 400 nm disappeared due to the aggregation of Ag NPs and the overall absorbance increased, resulting in sufficient laser-to-heat conversion and thus surface bubble generation.) After the bubble shrank and eventually vanished, the glass substrate was taken out of the solution and dried for 2 hours. Raman mapping was conducted using the deposited sample. Due to the co-deposition of colloidal nanoplastics and Ag NPs, the SERS effect is activated. It was also confirmed that the as-purchased Ag NPs do not contain any plastics. See FIGS. 10A-C: The control sample was fabricated by the SSBD process using pure Ag NP 10 nm suspension without seawater. NaCl was added into the sample to aggregate Ag NPs for bubble generation. From the control Ag NP sample and glass substrate, only weak fluorescence signals were observed between 1300 and 1400 cm.sup.−1, while that from seawater shows obvious PS peaks. For the spot with PS peaks, no plastic particles were observed in SEM.

[0122] For the SEM imaging, a 3.0-nm Au/Pd layer was coated on the SSBD spots using a sputtering device (ACE600 Carbon & Sputter Coater). Field emission SEM (Magellan 400) was used to acquire the images at a 5 keV accelerating voltage. EDX mappings were conducted at 10 keV (acquisition time: 60 s) using a Bruker EDX system (Bruker Nano GmbH Berlin) on a FIB-SEM (Helios G4 UX, ThermoFisher Scientific) platform.

[0123] Chemical identification of nanoplastics can be characterized by Raman vibrational bands. The spatial resolution (p) in this setup (NRS-5100, Jasco, confocal Raman microscope) is diffraction-limited to 532 nm (p=0.61λ/NA, where λ (=785 nm) is the wavelength of light and NA (=0.9) is the numerical aperture of the objective lens). SERS utilizes an optical electric field in the nanoscale spatial region which is produced by localized surface plasmon resonance of the metal NPs so that it has the advantage of enhancing the Raman signals of the label-free analytes. Thus, the fingerprint of the nanoplastics was investigated using an Ag-based SERS spot that SSBD produced. SERS mapping was acquired at 1.5 μm intervals using the 785 nm excitation laser with 600-groove/mm grating unless otherwise noted. The Raman system included microfocus with a 100× objective lens. The excitation power was about 35 mW. The center wavenumber was fixed at 1300 cm.sup.−1. The scattered light was detected with a backscattering configuration. Automatic fluorescence correction was applied to all Raman mapping measurements.

[0124] 1. Observation of Nylon Nanofibers

[0125] In the seawater from Long Beach, Calif., nanofibers were found in the SSBD spot (FIG. 11A) whose diameters were ˜20 nm and lengths were longer than several micrometers. The corresponding EDX elemental mapping in FIG. 11B shows uniform carbon elements along the nanofibers. Two selected points of EDX spectra are compared, with one from the nanofiber-rich (X.sub.1-1) region and the other from the Ag-rich (X.sub.1-2) region (FIG. 11C). The differences in the two spectra confirm that the nanofibers contain carbon (x-ray energy of 0.277 keV) and show they also contain oxygen (0.525 keV): noting the silicon peak is from the glass substrate.

[0126] The obtained SERS spectrum (FIG. 11D) showed peaks of weak amide I (C═O stretch) at 1632 cm.sup.−1, strong CH.sub.2 bending at 1440 cm.sup.−1, wagging at 1380 cm.sup.−1, and twisting at 1300 cm.sup.−1. Many of these peaks correspond well to the signature of Nylon (polycaprolactam) reference. Not every Nylon peak shows up in the SERS spectrum, which may be attributed in that the peaks can be weakened or absent when the Raman polarizability component is tangential to metal surfaces, which are from the Ag NPs in this experiment. The unidentified peak at 1000 cm.sup.−1 may be attributed to the reported hetero-aggregation or adsorption of nanoplastics, which is confirmed by transmission electron microscope (TEM) characterization (FIG. 11E). Considering the shape of the nanostructure from SEM, its constituent atoms from EDX, and chemical signatures from SERS, it is believed the observed nanofiber is Nylon. This demonstrates that nanoplastics can take the form of nanofiber in marine environments after the degradation of Nylon, which can be from industrial wastewater, abandoned dumps, fishing gears, or laundry wastewaters. If nano-filtration was used, as adopted by the other nanoplastic detection studies (Pyr-GC/MS), the long nanofibers could not have been found, leading to a misunderstanding of the nanoplastics in the environment. In the water sample from Shenzhen, China, we have also observed similar nanofibers. We have confirmed that they are of carbon nature, but their chemistry is not conclusively.

[0127] 2. Observation of PS Nanoplastics

[0128] In the seawater collected from Corpus Christi, Tex., several irregularly shaped particles were found. The EDX elemental mapping of the SSBD spot showed several carbon-rich regions (FIG. 12A), and FIG. 12B shows the contrast between the carbon-rich and Ag-rich regions. SEM reveals that these are particles with certain dimensions less than 1 μm (FIGS. 12B and 12C). The irregular structure in FIG. 12C with sub-micron thickness appears to be a partially damaged flake which may result from wear or other types of degradation. The image of another structure (FIG. 12D) appears to be a particle undergoing division into two smaller ones. The measured SERS spectrum has several peaks that match the reference peaks from PS (FIG. 12E and FIG. 16). According to the report on nanoplastics in the North Atlantic subtropical gyre using Pyr-GC/MS, polystyrene is one of the most abundant polymeric species as suggested by Pyr-GC/MS, but these images are the first time their morphologies are revealed. It is noteworthy that the appearance of colloidal PS nanoplastics in the ocean differs significantly from those synthesized in the laboratory (FIG. 13), which are routinely used for toxicity studies.

[0129] Interestingly, in many water samples, the PS signals were detected by Raman analysis but no PS particles could be seen by SEM (Table 2 and FIGS. 16 and 10A-C). Oligomers, specifically smaller styrene oligomers, however, are too small to be captured by SEM imaging techniques.

[0130] 3. Observations of PET Nanostructures

[0131] In seawater samples from Long Beach, Calif., nanostructures with a ball-stick shape were found (FIG. 14a). According to the SERS spectrum, most peaks agree well with those from a benchmark Raman spectrum from PET plastic water bottles (FIG. 14B). Some of these prominent peaks are attributed to the ester C(O)O bending mode at 861 cm.sup.−1, symmetric C—O—C stretching at 1180 cm.sup.−1, CH.sub.2 wagging at 1289 cm.sup.−1, aromatic ring stretching at 1615 cm.sup.−1 and C═O stretching at 1726 cm.sup.−1. It is known that PET can have the ball-stick morphology from electrospinning processes. Some bacteria also have ball-stick shapes, but they would flatten after full dehydration. To further confirm that the identified nanoparticles were not bacteria, samples were dehydrated for two weeks and observed under SEM again. The particles remained the original 3D structures (FIGS. 15A-G), in contrast to bacteria. The ball-stick-shaped PET nanoplastics are also found in water from Jeju, South Korea (FIG. 13).

[0132] Surprisingly, PET nanoplastics were also found in water samples from the offshore location in the Gulf of Mexico, which were collected from 311 m-deep under the water surface (blue spectrum in FIG. 14B and SEM in FIG. 14C). It has been reported that polyester is the dominant species among the microplastics found underwater in the sea, but it is the first time that PET nanoplastics, a type of polyester, is found there. The PET particles from the deep sea showed irregular shapes, unlike the ball-stick shape from the Long Beach and Jeju locations (FIG. 14A). Since the SSBD process was developed for bio-sensing without damaging molecules, the thermal process in SSBD is unlikely to melt the plastic particles or change their morphologies. In addition, the reference SSBD experiment on lab-synthesized PS NPs suspension showed the intact shapes of the spherical particles (FIG. 13). Therefore, the different morphologies of the PET particles found in different locations may be due to their different synthesis techniques or how they were fragmented from larger pieces.