Optimizing the ratio of coomassie and methylene blue dyes for a cost-effective and rapid staining of PET, PVC, PP, PS, LLDPE, LDPE, and HDPE
Li, Lanxing, Dong, Linyinxue, Tian, Xuechen, Kianpoor Kalkhajeh, Yusef, Yang, Yixin, and Gan, Samuel Ken-En (2024) Optimizing the ratio of coomassie and methylene blue dyes for a cost-effective and rapid staining of PET, PVC, PP, PS, LLDPE, LDPE, and HDPE. Discover Sustainability, 5 (1). 74.
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Abstract
The ubiquitous presence of plastic brought on by the extensive use of plastic products calls for efficient and rapid plastic detection methods to detect and evaluate pollution. The commonly used Nile red dye takes many hours and is expensive while also not equally efficient across all the common plastic waste. To address this, we investigated the staining efficiency and optimized the ratio of a combined Coomassie brilliant blue and Methylene blue dye. In the optimisation process, Methanol-based Coomassie and Methylene blue dyes effectively stained the Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET), Polypropylene (PP), Polystyrene (PS), Linear Low-Density Polyethylene (LLDPE), Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE), and Linear Low-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) plastics without compromising the plastic's integrity. Image analysis showed a generally better staining efficacy compared to Nile red. Through systematic experimentation, we identified specific optimal ratios of Coomassie (C) brilliant blue: Methylene (M) blue for various plastics: 5:5 (mass) for PVC, 7:3 (mass) for PET, and 8:2 (mass) for PP, LDPE, and HDPE. Additionally, the ratio of 10:0 (mass) was found suitable for PS and LLDPE. Given the cost-effectiveness, efficiency, and accessibility of the blue dyes in labs, the optimized ratio of the blue dyes makes it suitable for large-scale plastic staining across the six tested types of plastic, replacing Nile red.
| Item ID: | 86907 |
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| Item Type: | Article (Research - C1) |
| ISSN: | 2662-9984 |
| Keywords: | Coomassie brilliant blue, Methylene blue, Microplastics, Nile red, Plastic detection, Plastic staining |
| Copyright Information: | © The Author(s) 2024. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. |
| Date Deposited: | 11 Nov 2025 02:15 |
| FoR Codes: | 41 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES > 4105 Pollution and contamination > 410504 Surface water quality processes and contaminated sediment assessment @ 100% |
| SEO Codes: | 18 ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT > 1899 Other environmental management > 189999 Other environmental management not elsewhere classified @ 100% |
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