Abstract

Due to the increased applications of engineered elemental metal nanoparticles (EMNPs) in recent years, increased attention has been devoted to their release into the environment. EMNPs pose potential risks to living organisms, including human beings. Hence, the characterization of EMNPs in the environment has gained significant importance. Among the various techniques reported for the characterization of EMNPs, on-line coupling of flow field-flow fractionation with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (F4-ICPMS) has been well established for the simultaneous separation, identification, and quantification of EMNPs, especially in the complex matrices of environmental samples. Thus, this review focuses on the specific advantages of the F4 method, especially the asymmetrical F4 (AF4) and hollow fiber F4 (HF5) methods, in the separation of EMNPs, the general development of AF4-ICPMS and HF5-ICPMS techniques, and recent advances in the application of these hyphenated techniques in examining the occurrence and transformation of EMNPs in the environment. Finally, several perspectives on these techniques have been put forward.

摘要

由于近年来工程元素金属纳米粒子 (EMNP) 的应用越来越多，人们越来越关注它们向环境中的释放。EMNP 对包括人类在内的生物体构成潜在风险。因此，环境中 EMNP 的表征变得非常重要。在报道的用于表征 EMNP 的各种技术中，流场-流动分馏与电感耦合等离子体质谱 (F4-ICPMS) 的在线耦合已经很好地用于 EMNP 的同时分离、鉴定和量化，特别是在环境样品的复杂基质。因此，这篇综述着重于 F4 方法的具体优势，尤其是非对称 F4 (AF4) 和中空纤维 F4 (HF5) 方法，在 EMNPs 的分离中，AF4-ICPMS 和 HF5-ICPMS 技术的一般发展，以及这些联用技术在检查环境中 EMNPs 的发生和转化中应用的最新进展。最后，提出了关于这些技术的几个观点。