Analytical approaches for characterizing and quantifying engineered nanoparticles in biological matrices from an (eco)toxicological perspective: old challenges, new methods and techniques

Abstract

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Development of methods for extraction and analytical characterization of carbon-based nanomaterials (nanoplastics and carbon nanotubes) in biological and environmental matrices by asymmetrical flow field-flow fractionation

“…The sample preparation followed the generic scheme suggested by Abdolahpur Monikh et al (2019) for the extraction of CB-NMs from biological media. As illustrated in Fig.…”

“…The sample preparation was as follows; the eggshells (without separating the proteins layer inside the eggshells) were washed three times using MQ water and dried at 60 C in an oven for 2 h. The eggshells were powdered and dried further at 60 C in an oven for 1 h. One gram of the resulting eggshells powder was dispersed in MQ water with pH 9.5 and stirred using a magnet for 5 h. During the stirring process (after 30 min of stirring), immediately after sonication aliquots of the stock nanoplastics (10 g/L) or CNTs (10 g/L) dispersions were spiked to the eggshells dispersion to reach a final concentration of 100 mg/L of the CNTs or nanoplastics, allowing the NMs to interact with the eggshells particles. The selected pH 9.5 facilitates the degradation of the stabilizer agents on the surface of the pristine NMs (Abdolahpur Monikh et al, 2019), thus enhance the attachment of the NMs to the eggshells particles. Ten mM of Ca 2þ was added to the dispersions of nanoplastics to further enhance the interaction of the eggshells particles with the nanoplastics because this Ca 2þ concentration increases the zeta potential of nanoplastics toward less negative values (À7 ± 4), regardless of the particle size.…”

“…The sluggish movement in understanding CB-NMs fate and adverse effects compared to other types of NMs or macroplastics stems from the limitation in methods and techniques that are capable of characterizing CB-NMs in complex matrices (Abdolahpur Monikh et al, 2019). Characterization of nanoplastics and CNTs in biological and environmental matrices is even more challenging due to the presence of other biological molecules and background carbon-based materials which may interfere with the characterization of the NMs of interest (Petersen et al, 2016).…”

“…The occurrence of nanoplastics and CNTs in different size distributions hinders the application of many available techniques. Some techniques such as transmission electron microscopy (TEM) are commonly used to characterize NMs (Abdolahpur Monikh et al, 2019). However, TEM has some disadvantages in terms of expense, complexity and sample preparation, which makes it less suitable for undertaking routine measurements (Calzolai et al, 2012).…”

“…Nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA) and dynamic light scattering (DLS) are moderately priced techniques and able to assess large amounts of particles in a sample without the requirement for tedious sample preparation methods. However, the direct measurement of polydisperse NM samples using NTA and DLS is problematic (Domingos et al, 2009;Abdolahpur Monikh et al, 2019).…”