Abstract
Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are widely used in industrial and consumer products owing to its antimicrobial nature and multiple applications. Consequently, their release into the environment is becoming a big concern because of their negative impacts on living organisms. In this work, AgNPs were detected at a potential of + 0.70 V vs. Ag/AgCl reference electrode, characterized, and quantified in consumer products by particle collision coulometry (PCC). The electrochemical results were compared with those measured with electron microscopy and single-particle inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The theoretical and practical peculiarities of the application of PCC technique in the characterization of AgNPs were studied. Reproducible size distributions of the AgNPs were measured in a range 10–100 nm diameters. A power allometric function model was found between the frequency of the AgNPs collisions onto the electrode surface and the number concentration of nanoparticles up to a silver concentration of 1010 L−1 (ca. 25 ng L−1 for 10 nm AgNPs). A linear relationship between the number of collisions and the number concentration of silver nanoparticles was observed up to 5 × 107 L−1. The PCC method was applied to the quantification and size determination of the AgNPs in three-silver containing consumer products (a natural antibiotic and two food supplements). The mean of the size distributions (of the order 10–20 nm diameters) agrees with those measured by electron microscopy.
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Funding
This work has been supported by the Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities and the European Regional Development Fund project RTI2018-096111-B-I00 (MICINN/FEDER) and by the Government of Aragon (E29_17R), and co-financed with FEDER 2014-2020. The work has been also 65% cofinanced by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Interreg VA Spain-France-Andorra programme (POCTEFA 2014-2020), Project OUTBIOTICS EFA183/16.
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In memoriam of Prof. Juan R. Castillo
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Hernández, D., Vidal, J.C., Laborda, F. et al. Detection, size characterization and quantification of silver nanoparticles in consumer products by particle collision coulometry. Microchim Acta 188, 12 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-020-04662-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-020-04662-4