This poster from ASMS 2016 (San Antonio, TX) demonstrates a new method for sensitive detection and quantification of size and element composition of Fe-rich nanoparticles
Fe and Fe oxide nanoparticles (NPs) are used for water and soil remediation, drug delivery, medical treatment and imaging, as well as for surface coating and catalysis applications. Monitoring the release of manufactured iron- containing nanomaterials into the environment is of special interest since iron is an ubiquitously occurring element with importance to living organisms and ecosystem.
Single particle ICP-MS (sp-ICP-MS) is more and more being used to measure number concentrations, mass and size of NPs due to its low detection limits and quantification capabilities. Fe is a challenging element for detection using ICP-MS due to 56ArO+ plasma gas ions interfering on the most abundant 56Fe isotope, resulting in high detection limits. Moreover, Fe is one of the abundant elements in the earth crust and is present in high concentrations in dissolved form
The TOFWERK icpTOF offers simultaneous multielement single particle detection. This can be used to trace engineered NPs in the high background of natural particles and to study chemical transformation of NPs. The instrument is equipped with a Q-cell technology, which can suppress ArO+ interferences and improve the LOD for Fe. Its temporal resolution of 30 μs minimizes the contribution of dissolved Fe to the particle signal.
