title: Single Particle ICP-MS: Advances toward routine analysis of nanomaterials.
abstract: From its early beginnings in characterizing aerosol particles to its recent applications for investigating natural waters and waste streams, single particle inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (spICP-MS) has proven to be a powerful technique for the detection and characterization of aqueous dispersions of metal-containing nanomaterials. Combining the high-throughput of an ensemble technique with the specificity of a single particle counting technique and the elemental specificity of ICP-MS, spICP-MS is capable of rapidly providing researchers with information pertaining to size, size distribution, particle number concentration, and major elemental composition with minimal sample perturbation. Recently, advances in data acquisition, signal processing, and the implementation of alternative mass analyzers (e.g., time-of-flight) has resulted in a wider breadth of particle analyses and made significant progress toward overcoming many of the challenges in the quantitative analysis of nanoparticles. This review provides an overview of spICP-MS development from a niche technique to application for routine analysis, a discussion of the key issues for quantitative analysis, and examples of its further advancement for analysis of increasingly complex environmental and biological samples. Graphical Abstract Single particle ICP-MS workflow for the analysis of suspended nanoparticles.
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Duke University, Center for Environmental Implications of Nanotechnology, Durham, NC, 27708, USA. manuel.montano@duke.edu.
authors.forename: Manuel D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Montaño
authors.affiliation: School of Earth Sciences, Ohio State University, 125 S. Oval Mall, 275 Mendenhall Lab, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA.
authors.forename: John W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Olesik
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Geochemistry, Colorado School of Mines, 1012 14th Street, Golden, CO, 80401, USA.
authors.forename: Angela G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Barber
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Geochemistry, Colorado School of Mines, 1012 14th Street, Golden, CO, 80401, USA.
authors.forename: Katie
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Challis
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Geochemistry, Colorado School of Mines, 1012 14th Street, Golden, CO, 80401, USA.
authors.forename: James F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Ranville
mesh_terms: D008422:Materials Testing / Q000379:methods*; D008832:Microchemistry / Q000379:methods*; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013054:Spectrophotometry, Atomic / Q000379:methods*
keywords: Core-shell nanoparticles; Engineered nanoparticles; Environmental analysis; FFF-ICP-MS; ICP-TOF-MS; Single particle ICP-MS