Mass spectrometry for the characterization and quantification of engineered inorganic nanoparticles

Abstract

A B S T R A C TAdvancements in nanoscience enabled the synthesis of a diverse array of engineered nanomaterials. The precise control of the composition and quality of such nanomaterials is required to ensure their eventual successful application. Also importantly, the potentially adverse environmental and/or human health effects resulting from exposure to nanoparticles (NPs) is still a critical but underexplored research area. To understand and assess the potentially harmful effects of NPs a proper knowledge of their physicochemical properties is required.Among the different available analytical tools for the characterization and quantification of engineered inorganic NPs, mass spectrometry (MS) offers outstanding capabilities. The analytical capabilities of different MS-based techniques, including elemental and molecular detection, and hybrid tools derived from their coupling with different separation approaches, to identify, characterize and quantify NPs is here revised. A forward look into trends on the use of MS for more complete chemical analysis of engineered inorganic NPs is finally attempted.

Nanoparticle Characterization: What to Measure?

“…Mass spectrometry was used originally for the characterization of nanoparticle composition by revealing the stoichiometry of their building blocks after digestion and dissolution. With the introduction of soft ionization techniques, such as electrospray ionization (ESI) and matrix‐assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI), and methods of separation and detection able to analyze samples in the Megadalton range, such as ion‐mobility spectrometry (IMS), time‐of‐flight (TOF) analysis, and single‐particle inductively coupled plasma‐mass spectrometry (single‐particle ICP‐MS), the range of application of MS has been extended to the analysis of intact nanoparticles ranging from few nanometers to hundreds of nanometers in diameter . Thanks to the versatility of the analysis methods, MS has been used to investigate a variety of nanoparticle properties besides elemental composition .…”

Techniques for the experimental investigation of the protein corona

“…In the case of inorganic NPs, these studies can be further completed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) which allows for the calculation of the total content of sulfur coming from cysteine residues of the proteins, as well as for the total content of metal coming from the NPs [19]. In this way the ICP-MS data provide the amount of NPs, which together with the results from the protein quantification assays yield the number of proteins per NP [20].…”

Continued Efforts on Nanomaterial‐Environmental Health and Safety Is Critical to Maintain Sustainable Growth of Nanoindustry

“…[20,39] iv) Another major hurdle for understanding realistic exposure of ENMs is a lack of analytical tools that can be used to characterize and quantify ENMs from complex mixtures, including identification, content, forms of existence in complex media (e.g., food, dust, slurry, soil, etc.). For this purpose, although useful methods are being developed including single-particle inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry, single-particle ICP time-of-flight mass spectrometer, and automated electron microscopy, [46][47][48][49][50][51] portable, easy to use, accurate, and reliable methods are very much in need to characterize and quantify diverse ENMs in the complex environmental media.…”