Analysis of gold nanoparticles in a hydrocarbon solvent by single particle-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (spICP-MS) and TEM

Single-particle inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (spICP-MS) is used increasingly to characterize element-containing nanoparticles (NPs) in various samples, providing data on the number, concentration, size of particles, as well as the dissolved element concentration. Because there are currently only three examples of spICP-MS analysis of NPs in hydrocarbons in the literature. There is a clear need for hydrocarbon-based NP reference materials (RMs), available for analysts to develop and validate new methods. Here, an analysis of spICP-MS data is presented for two custom-developed gold NP RMs in toluene. The particle size data obtained by spICP-MS is compared with the total particle diameter obtained by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and shows the excellent agreement among both techniques.