New paper presents microwave-microfluidic sensing technique for microplastics
A new paper in Environmental Science & Technology describes a novel microwave-microfluidic platform for flow-through detection and identification of microplastics in aqueous media. The feasibility of the new technique is demonstrated by passing size-categorized plastic, glass, and biogenic reference particles through disposable microfluidic chips positioned over split-ring resonator (SRR) sensing hotspots, generating particle-specific perturbations in resonance frequency and transmission amplitude. The microwave signatures are interpreted by a machine-learning model for single-particle detection and material classification. The paper is the result of a collaboration between researchers from the University of Waterloo Water Institute led by Prof. Carolyn Ren of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Mechatronics. Philippe and Shuhuan are co-authors on the paper.
