Size-Based Speciation of Natural Colloidal Particles by Flow Field Flow Fractionation, Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectroscopy, and Transmission Electron Microscopy/X-ray Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy:  Colloids−Trace Element Interaction

Abstract

Flow field flow fractionation (FIFFF), inductively coupled plasma-mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) coupled to X-ray energy dispersive spectrometry (X-EDS) are used in series for the first time to characterize colloids. Results demonstrate the utility of FIFFF-ICP-MS-TEM/X-EDS to relate physical properties (size) of colloids to their chemical properties (chemical composition, surface chemical composition, and colloids-trace elements association). Results suggest that the major part of natural organic matter (NOM) is concentrated in the fraction < 0.01 microm (C2). Aluminum, iron, and manganese are the main colloidal components in the fraction 0.01-0.45 microm (C1). Aluminum occurs as aluminum oxides or aluminosilicates in the whole size range, while iron and manganese occur as individual oxyhydroxides in the size range < 0.20 microm. Within the C2 fraction, Al, Mn, Cu, and Ni elements are complexed to NOM (e.g., humic substances). Iron is complexed to NOM in some samples and probably free in other samples. Lead is totally free in all samples. Within the C1 fraction, Cu and Pb are mostly associated to Fe and Mn oxyhydroxides. Consequently, NOM with Fe and Mn oxyhydroxides are the main colloidal carriers of trace elements in the Loire watershed system.

Detection and characterization of engineered nanoparticles in food and the environment

“…An increasingly popular combination in this respect is FFF-ICP-MS, which allows the size separation of the sample with quantitative and elemental analysis of the obtained size fractions. This development is highly promising for nanoparticle analysis, as particles can be simultaneously sized and analyzed in their original environment (Ranville et al 1999;Hassello¨v et al 1999a,b;Lyven et al 2003;von der Kammer et al 2004;Bolea et al 2006;Baalousha et al 2006a).…”

Using FlFFF and aTEM to determine trace metal–nanoparticle associations in riverbed sediment

“…This combination of FlFFF and aTEM, therefore, gives a comprehensive picture of trace metal-nanoparticle associations. While various studies have utilised FFF coupled to light scattering, [34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45] ICPMS, [7,[46][47][48][49][50][51][52] TEM [33,[53][54][55] or some combination thereof, many of these studies focussed on organic matter, synthetic nanoparticles, or uncontaminated river water. This study uses the above mentioned techniques to provide a first look at the direct associations between mineral nanoparticles and toxic trace metals in contaminated sediment.…”

Measurement and characterization of engineered titanium dioxide nanoparticles in the environment

“…Microfiltration and ultrafiltration are the easiest ways to perform such a fractionation task, while field-flow fractionation (FFF) is a more powerful separation method. FFF includes flow field-flow fractionation (FFFF), sedimentation field-flow fractionation, and thermal fieldflow fractionation (Gimbert et al, 2005;Baalousha et al, 2006;Hassellöv et al, 2008;Plathe et al, 2010;Baalousha et al, 2011;von der Kammer et al, 2011). Other important methods are centrifugation and ultracentrifugation (Bootz et al, 2004;Hassellöv et al, 2008), size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) (Weinberg et al, 2011), hydrodynamic chromatography (Tiede et al, 2010), capillary electrophoresis (CE) (Celiz et al, 2011), gel electrophoresis (Surugau and Urban, 2009), isoelectric focusing (Howard, 2010), manipulation between solvent phases such as cloud point extraction (Howard, 2010;Liu et al, 2012), and photophoretic velocimetry (Helmbrecht et al, 2011).…”