Embedded Optical Sensor System for Bisphenol A Detection

In recent days, the growing presence of microplastics and bisphenol A (BPA) in water and land environments raises serious concerns for both ecosystems and human health. There is a pressing need to create portable, fast and affordable ways to detect these substances, as a result. This study introduces an optical sensor designed to detect microplastics and BPA. This study uses principles like spectroscopy and fluorescence. This sensor includes an optical transducer that has been chemically modified and works with micro plastics whose surfaces have been altered to improve sensitivity. For identifying microplastics, the sensor uses light scattering and Fluorescence spectra to determine the type of microplastics and the size of the particles. To detect BPA, the sensor relies on the absorbance responses of the sample, using molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) to specifically recognize BPA. This sensor was tested using standard solutions and actual water samples from water bodies to check its accuracy, selectivity and how quickly it responds. The early findings of this study shows that the sensor can detect BPA at low concentrations in the nano molar range and can distinguish micro plastics as mall as a few micro meters. These results align well with those from traditional methods that has been carried out in early evolution stage of detection like high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and Fourier transform (FT-IR) spectroscopy. The optical sensor is portable, inexpensive and suitable for real time, onsite monitoring of microplastics and BPA pollution. This research supports the development of optical sensing technologies for environmental monitoring and offers a scalable solution for detecting BPA in water systems.