Curcumin-based-fluorescent staining and microfluidic detection of microplastics in wastewater effluent

Juviya Mathew; Haider Warraich; Ratul Kumar Das; Pouya Rezai; Satinder Kaur Brar

doi:10.1039/D5CC02304A

You do not have JavaScript enabled. Please enable JavaScript to access the full features of the site or access our non-JavaScript page.

Curcumin-based-fluorescent staining and microfluidic detection of microplastics in wastewater effluent

Juviya Mathew,^a Haider Warraich,^b Ratul Kumar Das,^a Pouya Rezai

^b and Satinder Kaur Brar

*^a

Author affiliations

* Corresponding authors

^a Department of Civil Engineering, Lassonde School of Engineering, York University, Toronto, Canada
E-mail: satinder.brar@lassonde.yorku.ca

^b Department of Mechanical Engineering, Lassonde School of Engineering, York University, Toronto, Canada
E-mail: prezai@yorku.ca

Abstract

We present a fast, eco-friendly method for detecting polyethylene microplastics (<10 μm) in wastewater effluent using curcumin as a natural fluorescent dye. Curcumin-stained particles exhibited strong green fluorescence and electrophoretic capture in a microfluidic device, demonstrating a sustainable alternative to synthetic dyes for environmental microplastic detection.

Download options Please wait...

Supplementary files

Supplementary information PDF (1205K)

Article information

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/D5CC02304A
Article type: Communication
Submitted: 25 Apr 2025
Accepted: 07 Sep 2025
First published: 18 Sep 2025
This article is Open Access

Download Citation

Chem. Commun., 2025, Advance Article

Permissions

Request permissions

Curcumin-based-fluorescent staining and microfluidic detection of microplastics in wastewater effluent

J. Mathew, H. Warraich, R. Kumar Das, P. Rezai and S. K. Brar, Chem. Commun., 2025, Advance Article , DOI: 10.1039/D5CC02304A

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party commercial publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Chemical Communications

Curcumin-based-fluorescent staining and microfluidic detection of microplastics in wastewater effluent

Abstract

Supplementary files

Article information

Download Citation

Permissions

Curcumin-based-fluorescent staining and microfluidic detection of microplastics in wastewater effluent

Social activity

Search articles by author

Spotlight

Advertisements