Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 10
Identification of Nanoparticle in Organic
Matrices
Antonietta M. Gatti and Stefano Montanari
Abstract The chapter discusses the ways to identify micron- and sub-micron-sized
particles in a variety of matrices and verify, during manufacturing processes and in
the final products, the presence and distribution of the engineered nanoparticles
deliberately used or those in any case present as unwelcome side-products of human
activities, particularly high-temperature ones.
A brief introduction is presented on the use of an Environmental Scanning
Electron Microscope and of the X-ray microprobe of an Energy Dispersive Spec-
troscopy that can give information on the elemental composition of
the
nanoparticles trapped in the products.
10.1
Introduction
Micro- and, in particular, nanosized particles are a largely new type of environ-
mental pollution whose importance has been underestimated at least until very
recently. In most cases they are generated by human activities, but their deliberate
addition as engineered nanoparticles in many different products is growing more
and more widespread. The novel diagnostic approach offered by nanopathology
was able to demonstrate their invasiveness and pathogenicity. It is therefore nec-
essary to evaluate their presence in the environment (air, earth, water) and in all the
matrices in which they can penetrate (e.g., the organism) or where they can be laid
or drop. It is also important to notice that not infrequently raw materials are already
polluted by that particularly fine dust and the sole analysis of the final products
where a number of ingredients, and, obviously, of different raw materials, are
mixed does not supply all the information needed to track the origin of pollution
and, eventually, to solve the problem. But in more than one instance analyzing the
