A Review on Approaches to Determination of Nanoparticles in Complex Samples

KeyWord:nanoparticles  pretreatment method  characterization and analytical techniques  review

Abstract:

      With the development and application of engineered nanoparticles£¨ENPs£©£¬ENPs have entered our daily life in various fields.A continually growing number of consumer products contain this nanomaterial with varying particles sizes and elemental compositions£¬which have been discharged increasingly into the environment becoming nano waste.For some time£¬concerns have been raised related to the potential toxicity of ENPs to human health for their special physicochemical property.As a result,analytical methods are urgently needed for the reliable determination of ENPs.Due to the small size£¬high surface to volume ratio and other properties£¬the states of ENPs are easily charged in certain environments£¬especially in impure£¬multi-component£¬heterogeneous and complex samples£¬which could not be directly used for instrumental analysis.For most of the analytical techniques£¬dilution of ENP samples is needed for minimum sample preparation.The stability of charge stabilized ENPs is especially sensitive to changes of pH value or ionic strength£¬and sometimes even to dilution.Thus£¬ENPs analysis in real sample could be challenging.This article reviews the general characterization and the use of ENPs£¬sample pretreatment methods and analytical techniques commonly used for their determination.The main aspect of this review covers the preparation procedures of liquid and powder samples£¬respectively.Moreover£¬various applications by direct determination or analysis after suitable digestion as well as novel approaches such as single particle inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry£¨spICPMS£© technique£¬and hyphenated techniques such as field flow fractionation£¨FFF£© are discussed in detail.Finally£¬the future trends and developments in this research area are prospected£®