Using Single Particle ICP-MS as a Tool for Understanding Metallic Nanoparticle Transformation during Nanotoxicity Assays

摘要: The advent of engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) and their increased use has remarkably improved the performance of basic materials and consumer products, but has also increased the potential for ENP release into the environment. Technical procedures, more accurate and specific than those for routine chemical analysis, are needed for characterization and quantification of ENPs at environmentally relevant concentrations in nanotoxicology studies. Single particle inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (sp-ICP-MS) has emerged as a technique potentially capable of measuring ENPs in aqueous media at the pg L-1 range. The work presented here establishes a method for employing sp-ICP-MS toward the characterization of ENPs following their exposure to a model organism, Caenorhabditis elegans. Sample preparation, ICP-MS analysis, data processing, particulate transport efficiency evaluation, and …