CSIRO Land and Water, Lucas Heights, NSW 2234, Australia.
Anal Chem. 2011 Dec 15;83(24):9361-9. doi: 10.1021/ac201952t. Epub 2011 Nov 29.
Currently there are few ideal methods for the characterization of nanoparticles in complex, environmental samples, leading to significant gaps in toxicity and exposure assessments of nanomaterials. Single particle-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (spICPMS) is an emerging technique that can both size and count metal-containing nanoparticles. A major benefit of the spICPMS method is its ability to characterize nanoparticles at concentrations relevant to the environment. This paper presents a practical guide on how to count and size nanoparticles using spICPMS. Different methods are investigated for measuring transport efficiency (i.e., nebulization efficiency), an important term in the spICPMS calculations. In addition, an alternative protocol is provided for determining particle size that broadens the applicability of the technique to all types of inorganic nanoparticles. Initial comparison, using well-characterized, monodisperse silver nanoparticles, showed the importance of having an accurate transport efficiency value when determining particle number concentration and, if using the newly presented protocol, particle size. Ultimately, the goal of this paper is to provide improvements to nanometrology by further developing this technique for the characterization of metal-containing nanoparticles.
目前,在复杂的环境样品中对纳米颗粒进行特征描述的理想方法很少,这导致对纳米材料的毒性和暴露评估存在很大差距。单颗粒电感耦合等离子体质谱(spICPMS)是一种新兴技术,可对含金属的纳米颗粒进行大小和计数。spICPMS 方法的一个主要优点是能够以与环境相关的浓度对纳米颗粒进行特征描述。本文介绍了一种使用 spICPMS 进行计数和测量纳米颗粒大小的实用指南。研究了不同的方法来测量传输效率(即雾化效率),这是 spICPMS 计算中的一个重要术语。此外,还提供了一种用于确定粒径的替代方案,该方案拓宽了该技术对所有类型无机纳米颗粒的适用性。使用经过良好表征的单分散银纳米颗粒进行的初步比较表明,在确定颗粒数浓度以及如果使用新提出的方案确定粒径时,具有准确传输效率值的重要性。最终,本文的目标是通过进一步开发该技术来对含金属纳米颗粒进行特征描述,从而对纳米计量学进行改进。