title: Comparison of three analytical methods to measure the size of silver nanoparticles in real environmental water and wastewater samples.
abstract: Due to the widespread application of engineered nanoparticles, their potential risk to ecosystems and human health is of growing concern. Silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) are one of the most extensively produced NPs. Thus, this study aims to develop a method to detect Ag NPs in different aquatic systems. In complex media, three emerging techniques are compared, including hydrodynamic chromatography (HDC), asymmetric flow field flow fractionation (AF4) and single particle inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (SP-ICP-MS). The pre-treatment procedure of centrifugation is evaluated. HDC can estimate the Ag NP sizes, which were consistent with the results obtained from DLS. AF4 can also determine the size of Ag NPs but with lower recoveries, which could result from the interactions between Ag NPs and the working membrane. For the SP-ICP-MS, both the particle size and concentrations can be determined with high Ag NP recoveries. The particle size resulting from SP-ICP-MS also corresponded to the transmission electron microscopy observation (p>0.05). Therefore, HDC and SP-ICP-MS are recommended for environmental analysis of the samples after our established pre-treatment process. The findings of this study propose a preliminary technique to more accurately determine the Ag NPs in aquatic environments and to use this knowledge to evaluate the environmental impact of manufactured NPs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Agricultural Chemistry, National Taiwan University, Taipei 106, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Ying-Jie
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: Department of Agricultural Chemistry, National Taiwan University, Taipei 106, Taiwan. Electronic address: yhs@ntu.edu.tw.
authors.forename: Yang-Hsin
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Shih
authors.affiliation: Material and Chemical Research Laboratories, Industrial Technology Research Institute, Hsinchu 310, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chiu-Hun
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Su
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, Tzu-Chi University, Hualien 970, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Han-Chen
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Ho
mesh_terms: D013058:Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; D010316:Particle Size; D012834:Silver / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry; D062065:Wastewater / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D012834:Silver; D062065:Wastewater
keywords: Asymmetric flow field-flow fractionation (AF4); Centrifugation; Hydrodynamic chromatography (HDC); Silver nanoparticle (Ag NP); Single particle-ICP-MS (SP-ICP-MS)