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Updated: Mar 25, 2026

A Practical Guide on Coupling a Scanning Mobility Sizer and Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer SMPS-ICPMS
Published on: July 11, 2017
Impact of and correction for instrument sensitivity drift on nanoparticle size measurements by single-particle ICP-MS
Hind El Hadri1,2, Elijah J Petersen3, Michael R Winchester4
1Chemical Sciences Division, Material Measurement Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), 100 Bureau Drive, Gaithersburg, MD, 20899, USA.
Abstract:
The effect of ICP-MS instrument sensitivity drift on the accuracy of nanoparticle (NP) size measurements using single particle (sp)ICP-MS is investigated. Theoretical modeling and experimental measurements of the impact of instrument sensitivity drift are in agreement and indicate that drift can impact the measured size of spherical NPs by up to 25 %. Given this substantial bias in the measured size, a method was developed using an internal standard to correct for the impact of drift and was shown to accurately correct for a decrease in instrument sensitivity of up to 50 % for 30 and 60 nm gold nanoparticles. Graphical Abstract Correction of nanoparticle size measurement by spICP-MS using an internal standard.
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