posted on 2021-01-15, 23:05authored byWenyan Liu, Honglan Shi, Kun Liu, Xuesong Liu, Endalkachew Sahle-Demessie, Chady Stephan
The increasing prevalence of products
that incorporate engineered
nanoparticles (ENPs) has prompted efforts to investigate the potential
release, environmental fate, and exposure of the ENPs. However, the
investigation of cerium dioxide nanoparticles (CeO2 NPs)
in soil has remained limited, owing to the analytical challenge from
the soil’s complex nature. In this study, this challenge was
overcome by applying a novel single particle-inductively coupled plasma-mass
spectrometry (SP-ICP-MS) methodology to detect CeO2 NPs
extracted from soil, utilizing tetrasodium pyrophosphate (TSPP) aqueous
solution as an extractant. This method is highly sensitive for determining
CeO2 NPs in soil, with detection limits of size and concentration
of 15 nm and 194 NPs mL–1, respectively. Extraction
efficiency was sufficient in the tested TSPP concentration range from
1 mM to 10 mM at a soil-to-extractant ratio 1:100 (g mL–1) for the extraction of CeO2 NPs from the soil spiked
with CeO2 NPs. The aging study demonstrated that particle
size, size distribution, and particle concentration underwent no significant
change in the aged soils for a short period of one month. This study
showed an efficient method capable of extracting and accurately determining
CeO2 NPs in soil matrices. The method can serve as a useful
tool for nanoparticle analysis in routine soil tests and soil research.