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Asymmetric Flow Field Flow Fractionation Online with Single Particle – Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry: Detection and Quantification of Silver Nanoparticles in Aqueous Samples
Citation:
Huynh, K., E. Siska, AND Ed Heithmar. Asymmetric Flow Field Flow Fractionation Online with Single Particle – Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry: Detection and Quantification of Silver Nanoparticles in Aqueous Samples. Presented at American Chemical Society, Denver, CO, March 26, 2015.
Impact/Purpose:
Poster describes research on the determination and size characterization of metal nanoparticles in water. Field flow fractionation is used to separate nanoparticles by size, and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry in the single particle mode is used to count and measure individual nanoparticles.
Description:
Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are increasingly being used in many consumer products as disinfectants. Through the use of these products, AgNPs could likely enter aquatic environments. Because recent studies have shown that AgNPs are toxic to various species, including microorganisms and mammalian cells, these releases might cause adverse impacts on ecological systems and human health. Therefore, the detection and quantification of AgNPs in water samples is essential for studying the fate and transport, and assessing the risk of AgNPs. However, methods for the detection, quantification, and characterization of AgNPs in water samples are currently not well developed. The aim of this study is to develop an analytical method to detect and quantify AgNPs in treated wastewater using asymmetric flow field flow fractionation (AsFlFFF) connected online with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry operated in single particle mode (SP-ICPMS). Since SP-ICPMS does not measure particle size, but rather analyte mass for each particle, the combination of AsFlFFF and SP-ICPMS will provide an extremely powerful tool for detecting and quantifying AgNPs. For instance, AsFlFFF/SP-ICP-MS can detect and determine the concentration of AgNPs smaller than 20 nm, which is currently not possible using SP-ICPMS alone. For particles larger than 20 nm, this system can potentially provide additional information regarding the thickness of the coating layer of AgNPs. Moreover, the AsFlFFF/SP-ICP-MS system could potentially differentiate AgNPs from nanoparticles of insoluble silver salts (e.g., AgCl and Ag2S) having the same hydrodynamic diameter as AgNPs. For the development and evaluation of the proposed analytical method, several experiments are performed, including (i) developing necessary sample pretreatment methods, (ii) optimizing the performance of AsFlFFF, (iii) optimizing the operation parameters of the SP-ICPMS, and (iv) optimizing and validating the performance of the AsFlFFF/SP-ICPMS system.