Loughborough University
Browse
d5ZGeM-acsami.9b03062.pdf (5.81 MB)

Core-shell NaHoF4@TiO2 NPs: A labelling method to trace engineered nanomaterials of ubiquitous elements in the environment

Download (5.81 MB)
journal contribution
posted on 2019-05-31, 12:45 authored by Xianjin Cui, Benjamin Fryer, Diwei ZhouDiwei Zhou, Rhys Lodge, Andrei N. Khlobystov, Eugenia Valsami-Jones, Iseult Lynch
Understanding the fate and behavior of nanoparticles (NPs) in the natural environment is important to assess their potential risk. Single particle inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (spICP-MS) allows for the detection of NPs at extremely low concentrations, but the high natural background of the constituents of many of the most widely utilized nanoscale materials makes accurate quantification of engineered particles challenging. Chemical doping, with a less naturally abundant element, is one approach to address this; however, certain materials with high natural abundance, such as TiO2 NPs, are notoriously difficult to label and differentiate from natural NPs. Using the low abundance rare earth element Ho as a marker, Ho-bearing core -TiO2 shell (NaHoF4@TiO2) NPs were designed to enable the quantification of engineered TiO2 NPs in real environmental samples. The NaHoF4@TiO2 NPs were synthesized on a large scale (gram), at relatively low temperatures, using a sacrificial Al(OH)3 template that confines the hydrolysis of TiF4 within the space surrounding the NaHoF4 NPs. The resulting NPs consist of a 60 nm NaHoF4 core and a 5 nm anatase TiO2 shell, as determined by TEM, STEM-EDX mapping, and spICPMS. The NPs exhibit excellent detectability by spICP-MS at extremely low concentrations (down to 1 × 10−3 ng/L) even in complex natural environments with high Ti background.

Funding

This work was supported by the European Union via the Horizon 2020 project NanoFASE (Grant 646002) and a Natural Environment Resaerch Council CASE PhD studentship with PerkinElmer as the CASE partner (BF).

History

School

  • Science

Department

  • Mathematical Sciences

Published in

ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces

Volume

11

Issue

21

Pages

19452-19461

Citation

CUI, X. ... et al., 2019. Core-shell NaHoF4@TiO2 NPs: A labelling method to trace engineered nanomaterials of ubiquitous elements in the environment. ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, 11(21), pp. 19452-19461.

Publisher

American Chemical Society

Version

  • VoR (Version of Record)

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/

Acceptance date

2019-05-06

Publication date

2019-05-06

Notes

This is an Open Access Article. It is published by American Chemical Society under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported Licence (CC BY). Full details of this licence are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

ISSN

1944-8252

Language

  • en