An effective solution to simultaneously analyze size, mass and number concentration of polydisperse nanoplastics in a biological matrix: asymmetrical flow field fractionation coupled with a diode array detector and multiangle light scattering

Abstract

AF4-DAD-MALS is proposed to separate polydisperse nanoplastics and detect their size, mass and number concentration in a biological matrix.

Nanoplastics: Status and Knowledge Gaps in the Finalization of Environmental Risk Assessments

“…To the best of our knowledge, eight studies to date have proposed different methodologies to achieve this goal [ 32 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 ] ( Table 3 ). All these studies utilized non-properly ‘environmental’ organisms, since all samples were collected from local markets [ 32 , 47 , 48 ] or directly from farms [ 49 , 50 ].…”

“…However, acid treatment has recently been questioned because it tends to destroy and cause aggregation of NPs polymers [ 16 , 49 ]. Therefore, an alkaline approach, which is less invasive, is recommended [ 51 ]. Zhou et al [ 47 ] obtained satisfactory results using this approach to digest the organic tissues of fish samples.…”

“…Various studies have adopted an approach based on asymmetrical flow-field fractionation (AF4) to separate NPs from spiked biological samples [ 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 ]. AF4 allows the fractionation of nanoparticles based on their hydrodynamic size, which upon combination with detectors, such as diode array detector (DAD) and multiangle light scattering detector (MALS), provides additional information on particle size and concentration [ 31 , 35 ].…”

“…The first studies that adopted this approach in biological samples performed AF4-MALS to separate NPs from spiked digested fish tissue [ 49 ] and bird shell samples [ 50 ]. Luo et al [ 51 ] recently proposed an AF4-DAD-MALS approach to separate and detect nanoPS (from 30 to 500 nm) in spiked blood samples of rats ( Rattus norvegicus ), demonstrating the feasibility of this methodology to separate and quantify nanoPS in biological samples, with satisfactory results for >100 nm PS.…”