Coupling single particle ICP-MS with field-flow fractionation for characterizing metal nanoparticles contained in nanoplastic colloids

Abstract

Composite particles containing metallic nanoparticles in a polymer matrix, which simulate environmentally-transformed nanoparticles, are effectively characterized by combining field-flow fractionation with single particle ICP-MS.

Analytical applications of single particle inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry: a comprehensive and critical review

“…The analysis of pristine nanoparticles is regarded as the least complex scenario, since there is no matrix in which they are contained. Engineered nanomaterials commonly produced at laboratories for research or industrial purposes, 61,[63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72]75,76 but also commercial suspensions, 60,62,73,74 have been considered in this section. Table 2 summarizes the applications of SP-ICP-MS to the analysis of such pristine nanoparticles.…”

“…Merrifield et al 62 characterised and quantified Au-Ag core-shell nanoparticles, whereas Keri et al, 63 following a similar methodology to Kalomista, 65 were able to distinguish between Au-Ag alloyed and core-shell nanoparticles, providing average Au:Ag molar ratios. The analysis by SP-ICP-MS of composite particles consisting of polymer 66 or silica 72 particles containing metallic nanoparticles allowed to obtain the mass of Au or Pt per particle, respectively, as well as the corresponding distributions and the number of metallic nanoparticles per composite particle when their size was known. Complex nanomaterials, like up-conversion nanoparticles (NaYF 4 and NaGdF 4 doped with Yb or Er), could also be characterised by decreasing the element mass per particle detection limit; this could be done by reducing the resolution of the quadrupole and hence increasing the transmission of ions.…”

Field‐flow fractionation for nanoparticle characterization

“…Coupling FFF to two complementary concentration detectors provides more complete information. A common combination to study inorganic and mixed organic/inorganic NPs involves UV-Vis and ICP-MS [26,39,41,47,48]. Sometimes ICP-MS analysis was performed on fractions collected after FFF [49].…”

“…-Parallel FFF: two FFF couplings used independently on the same sample. Typically, AF4 and SdFFF have been involved, with similar characterization performance; then AF4 was preferred for fractionating particles with sizes below 100 nm; SdFFF beyond 100 nm, over a large size range [47,48,57]. Improving the selectivity in this case comes from the wide size range in which it is possible to effectively fractionate and characterize the particles.…”

Asymmetric Flow Field-Flow Fractionation (AF4) with Fluorescence Detection for Direct, Real-Time, Size-Resolved Measurements of Drug Release from Polymeric Nanoparticles

“…NP sizes, compositions, and concentrations can then be characterized by coupling AF4 to various spectroscopic and light scattering detectors [23]. In the vast majority of applications thus far, AF4 has primarily been coupled with light scattering to obtain size distributions of polymeric NPs [24][25][26][27][28][29][30] or with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) for inorganic NP speciation [31][32][33][34][35].…”