Analysis and Characterization of Manufactured Nanoparticles in Aquatic Environments - Environmental and Human Health Impacts of Nanotechnology - page 207

6

Analysis and Characterization of
Manufactured Nanoparticles in
Aquatic Environments

Martin Hassell ö v 1 and Ralf Kaegi 2

1 Department of Chemistry, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
2 Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag),
D ü bendorf, Switzerland

6.1 Introduction

This chapter aims to discuss the minimum set of key properties that describe
nanoparticles (NPs) in aquatic environments, and to review suitable analysis and
characterization methods. Special focus is on characterization of manufactured NPs
and associated nanoscale processes (Gilbert and Banfi eld, 2005 ). Manufactured
NPs have recently raised concerns because of their potential effects on human
health and the environment (Colvin, 2003; Donaldson et al. , 2004 ; Handy et al. , 2008 ;
Nel et al. , 2006 ; Oberdorster et al. , 2005). Therefore, the analytical demands related
to both exposure and effect assessment are discussed. Atmospheric NPs and air-
borne exposure are not covered in this chapter, but within Chapters 5 and 8, and
also reviewed elsewhere (Burleson et al. , 2004 ; Maynard, 2000 ); Powers et al. , 2007 ).
One aim has been to bring together concepts and knowledge from analytical chem-
istry, (e.g. quantitative determination of chemical composition in nanoparticle
ensembles, such as size fractions or on a single NP), the mature fi eld of particle size
analysis (mainly developed for micron particles) (Barth and Flippen, 1995),
environmental colloid science (Wilkinson and Lead, 2007) and the young fi eld of
nanometrology (Graham, 2007 ).