A research team led by Professor Jinsung Park from the Department of Biomechatronics at Sungkyunkwan University (co-first authors: Dr. Chihyun Kim and Dr. Joohyung Park), in collaboration with Professor Gyudo Lee’s group at Korea University and Professor Wonseok Lee’s group at Korea National University of Transportation, has developed the world’s first universal sensor capable of precisely detecting nanoplastics of various types and sizes using a single platform.

Nanoplastics infiltrate diverse ecosystems and the biosphere—including marine, soil, aquatic organisms, and even the human body—causing ecological disruption and posing threats to human health. However, due to their extremely small size (tens to hundreds of nanometers), they are difficult to detect with conventional filtration or optical equipment. Existing detection technologies are often limited to specific plastic types or shapes, and require expensive instruments and complex preprocessing, making on-site application highly challenging. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop a universal sensor technology capable of quantitatively detecting nanoplastics of various types, sizes, and morphologies.

Inspired by the natural phenomenon of epizoochory, in which hooked seeds attach to animal fur for dispersal, the research team devised a bioinspired sensor architecture that “attaches” nanoplastics to proteins and then “detaches” them. The sensor leverages amyloid oligomer proteins functionalized on the electrode surface, where interactions with nanoplastics induce measurable electrochemical signal changes, enabling precise detection of nanoscale particles. In particular, the incorporation of gold nanostructure-based micro-protrusions significantly enhanced protein adhesion and detection sensitivity, achieving a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.679 ng/mL—over 500 times more sensitive than conventional technologies. Furthermore, high precision and reproducibility were demonstrated not only in various environmental samples such as seawater and sand, but also in real biological samples including Daphnia magna, flying fish roe, and human serum, confirming the feasibility and scalability of the platform as a universal diagnostic tool.

This study presents the world’s first universal electrochemical nanoplastic sensor that is not limited to specific plastic types, enabling rapid and sensitive detection without expensive instrumentation. The technology is expected to find wide-ranging applications in environmental monitoring, including water, soil, and food safety, as well as in human exposure assessment.

This research was supported by the Ministry of Science and ICT (IITP-2025-RS-2023-00258971), the Ministry of Health and Welfare (KH140292), and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2023R1A2C2004964, RS-2023-00222737, RS-2024-00460957, RS-2024-00438542, RS-2025-00561260, RS-2025-00554830, RS-2024-00353529). The excellence of this work was recognized with publication in the Chemical Engineering Journal (Impact Factor: 13.2), a leading international journal in the field of environmental engineering, on June 27, 2025.

※ Paper Title: Epizoochory-inspired universal nanoplastic sensor

※ Journal: Chemical Engineering Journal

※ DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2025.165434

Electrochemical nanoplastic sensing inspired by the natural phenomenon of epizoochory