Development and validation of single particle ICP-MS for sizing and quantitative determination of nano-silver in...

The application of nanomaterials is leading to innovative developments in industry, agriculture, consumer products, and food and related sectors. However, due to the special properties of these materials there are concerns about their safety, especially because of our limited knowledge of human health effects and the fact that constantly new nanomaterials and applications thereof are being produced. The development of analytical techniques is a key element to understand the benefits as well as the risks of the application of such materials. In this study, a method is developed and validated for sizing and quantifying nano-silver in chicken meat using single particle inductive coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Samples are processed using an enzymatic digestion followed by dilution of the digest and instrumental analysis of the diluted digest using single particle ICP-MS. Validation of the method in the concentration of 5-25 mg/kg 60-nm silver nanoparticles showed good performance with respect to trueness (98-99% for size, 91-101% for concentration), repeatability (<2% for size, <11% for concentration), and reproducibility (<6% for size, <16% for concentration). The response of the method is linear, and a detection limit as low as 0.1 mg/kg can be obtained. Additional experiments showed that the method is robust and that digests are stable for 3 weeks at 4 °C. Once diluted for single particle ICP-MS analysis, the stability is limited. Finally, it was shown that nano-silver in chicken meat is not stable. Silver nanoparticles dissolved and were transformed into silver sulfide. While this has implications for the form in which nano-silver will be present in real-life meat samples, the developed method will be able to determine the presence and quantity of nanoparticle silver in such samples.