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Updated: Jan 25, 2026

Quantitative and Qualitative Examination of Particle-particle Interactions Using Colloidal Probe Nanoscopy
Published on: July 18, 2014
Quantification of ZnO nanoparticles and other Zn containing colloids in natural waters using a high sensitivity
Laurie Fréchette-Viens1, Madjid Hadioui1, Kevin J Wilkinson1
1Department of Chemistry, University of Montreal, C.P. 6128, Succ. Centre-Ville, Montréal, QC, Canada H3C 3J7.
Abstract:
Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry in single particle mode (SP-ICP-MS) is becoming a powerful tool of choice for the quantification and characterization of metallic nanoparticles (NP) at very low concentrations. Nonetheless, this technique has relatively high size detection limits for highly soluble nanoparticles (e.g. ZnO, CuO) or NP that are measured in the presence of high background concentrations of dissolved metal. In order to evaluate whether SP-ICP-MS could be used to measure a soluble NP under environmentally relevant conditions, an ion-exchange column (IEC) was coupled to a highly-sensitive sector-field ICP-MS (IEC-SP-ICP-MS) and then used to detect both spiked ZnO NP and natural Zn containing colloids in natural waters. The use of an ion exchange column, short dwell times (50 µs) and a high sensitivity instrument gave size detection limits for the measurement of ZnO NP of ca. 8.2 nm in pure water, 14.3 nm in a river water and 17.7 nm in a rainwater. IEC-SP-ICP-MS measured ca. 4.4 × 105 mL-1 zinc containing particles in a river water sample and ca. 1.0 × 105 mL-1 particles in a local rainwater.
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