A liquid nebulization-differential mobility analysis (LN/DMA) approach was evaluated for the measurement of the size distribution and quantitative number concentration of engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) in environmentally relevant aqueous matrices. The analysis time is eight minutes per analysis and requires little routine sample preparation and less than eight mL of sample. For the ENPs studied, the method was capable of rapid, non-invasive, direct analysis of ENPs in many types of complicated aqueous media. In addition the method can be used to prepare samples for evaluation by scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS). For standards having diameters &gt; 30 nm, the measured diameter of the reference materials were within the expected NIST-traceable size range for the materials. Response factors were determined from matrix-matched calibration curves, the concentration of SiO<sub>2</sub> and PSL standards spiked into environmentally-relevant aquatic media were within 100 to 110% of their expected values. Samples were quantitatively and homogenously collected onto TEM grids and were evaluated by STEM and EDS. It was possible to distinguish the standards from the background groundwater, wastewater and ecotoxicology media matrices and evaluate their morphology and elemental composition. Such analysis is useful for the evaluation of ENP having diameters &lt; 30 nm and for evaluation of complicated aqueous matrices. Overall this method has application to dose verification in ecotoxicology studies as well monitoring emissions from manufacturing processes

Liquid nebulization / differential mobility analysis approach for size, quantification, and chemical evaluation of engineered nanoparticles in environmental water matrices

251st National Meeting (2016)

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