Patent ID: 8822384

Claim:
A method for detecting a phthalate in a sample, the method comprising: providing a sample suspected of containing a phthalate; providing a plurality of nanoparticles having one or more attached sensing moieties, wherein the sensing moiety comprises one or more uridine 5′-triphosphate (UTP) groups, uridine 5′-diphosphate (UDP) groups, uridine monophosphate (UMP) groups, 2′-deoxythymidine 5′-triphosphate (dTTP) groups, 2′-deoxythymidine 5′-diphosphate (dTDP) groups, or deoxythymidine 5′-monophosphate (dTMP) groups; contacting the sample with the plurality of nanoparticles in the presence of a crosslinker to form a mixture, wherein the crosslinker is a copper (II) salt; maintaining the mixture under conditions to allow the crosslinker to bind the nanoparticles and any plasticizer present in the sample to form a nanoparticle aggregate; and detecting the nanoparticle aggregate, wherein the presence of the nanoparticle aggregate is indicative of the presence of a phthalate in the sample.