Nanoparticles (NPs) are ubiquitously present and have been a consistent part of the Earth’s history with a global impact on geological processes as well as life itself. Besides natural entities, new particle species described as incidental and engineered are increasingly emitted in anthropogenic processes. Alas, our knowledge on all three classes of particles is extremely limited and we need to gain new perspectives on relevant entities at the nanoscale to understand their cycling through natural systems. However, their elusive nature challenges analytical approaches and at the current state we lack the capabilities to retrieve different facets coherently.
This presentation will showcase new strategies to enable a comprehensive molecular and elemental characterisation of single particles (SP). Through the on-line coupling of two-dimensional optical traps, SP Raman spectroscopy and SP ICP-TOFMS, it becomes possible to carry out non-target screenings, to decipher the molecular and elemental composition of individual entities as well as to determine number concentrations and size distributions. This presentation will detail the underlying considerations and strategies and focus on new instrumentation, its hyphenation and future potential.
Literature:
C. Neuper, M. Šimić, T. E. Lockwood, R. Gonzalez de Vega, U. Hohenester, H. Fitzek, L. Schlatt, C. Hill, D. Clases, “Optofluidic Force Induction meets Raman Spectroscopy and Inductively Coupled Plasma – Mass Spectrometry: A new hyphenated technique for comprehensive and complementary characterisations of single particles”, (2023) (10.26434/chemrxiv-2023-hwgll)
T. E. Lockwood , R. Gonzalez de Vega, Z. Du, L. Schlatt, X. Xu, D. Clases, “Strategies to enhance figures of merit in ICP-ToF-MS”, J. Anal. At. Spectrom. (2024), 39, 227-234 (10.1039/D3JA00288H)
R. Gonzalez de Vega, T. E. Lockwood, L. Paton, L. Schlatt, D. Clases, “Non-target analysis and characterisation of nanoparticles in spirits via single particle ICP-TOF-MS”, J. Anal. At. Spectrom. (2023), 38, 2656-2663, (10.1039/D3JA00253E)
