Dataset Information

Quantification of Carbon Nanotubes in Environmental Matrices: Current Capabilities, Case Studies, and Future Prospects.

ABSTRACT: Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have numerous exciting potential applications and some that have reached commercialization. As such, quantitative measurements of CNTs in key environmental matrices (water, soil, sediment, and biological tissues) are needed to address concerns about their potential environmental and human health risks and to inform application development. However, standard methods for CNT quantification are not yet available. We systematically and critically review each component of the current methods for CNT quantification including CNT extraction approaches, potential biases, limits of detection, and potential for standardization. This review reveals that many of the techniques with the lowest detection limits require uncommon equipment or expertise, and thus, they are not frequently accessible. Additionally, changes to the CNTs (e.g., agglomeration) after environmental release and matrix effects can cause biases for many of the techniques, and biasing factors vary among the techniques. Five case studies are provided to illustrate how to use this information to inform responses to real-world scenarios such as monitoring potential CNT discharge into a river or ecotoxicity testing by a testing laboratory. Overall, substantial progress has been made in improving CNT quantification during the past ten years, but additional work is needed for standardization, development of extraction techniques from complex matrices, and multimethod comparisons of standard samples to reveal the comparability of techniques.

SUBMITTER: Petersen EJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4943226 | biostudies-literature | 2016 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Quantification of Carbon Nanotubes in Environmental Matrices: Current Capabilities, Case Studies, and Future Prospects.

Petersen Elijah J EJ Flores-Cervantes D Xanat DX Bucheli Thomas D TD Elliott Lindsay C C LC Fagan Jeffrey A JA Gogos Alexander A Hanna Shannon S Kägi Ralf R Mansfield Elisabeth E Bustos Antonio R Montoro AR Plata Desiree L DL Reipa Vytas V Westerhoff Paul P Winchester Michael R MR

Environmental science & technology 20160422 9

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have numerous exciting potential applications and some that have reached commercialization. As such, quantitative measurements of CNTs in key environmental matrices (water, soil, sediment, and biological tissues) are needed to address concerns about their potential environmental and human health risks and to inform application development. However, standard methods for CNT quantification are not yet available. We systematically and critically review each component of the ...[more]

PMID: 27050152

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Project description:Carbon nanotube (CNT) production is rapidly growing, and there is a need for robust analytical methods to quantify CNTs at environmentally relevant concentrations in complex organic matrices. Because physical and thermal properties vary among different types of CNTs, we studied 14 single-walled (SWCNTs) and multiwalled CNTs (MWCNTs). Our aim was to apply a classic analytical air pollution method for separating organic (OC) and elemental carbon (EC) (thermal optical transmittance/reflectance, TOT/R) to environmental and biological matrices and CNTs. The TOT/R method required significant modification for this analysis, which required a better understanding of the thermal properties of CNTs. An evaluation of the thermal properties of CNTs revealed two classes that could be differentiated using Raman spectroscopy: thermally "weak" and "strong." Using the programmed thermal analysis (PTA) method, we optimized temperature programs and instituted a set of rules for defining the separation of OC and EC to quantify a broad range of CNTs. The combined Raman/PTA method was demonstrated using two environmentally relevant matrices (cyanobacteria (CB) and urban air). Thermal evaluation of CB revealed it to be a complex matrix with interference occurring for both weak and strong CNTs, and thus a pretreatment method was necessary. Strong CNT masses of 0.51, 2.7, and 11 ?g, corresponding to concentrations of 10, 54, and 220 ?g CNT/g CB, yielded recoveries of 160 ± 29%, 99 ± 1.9%, and 96 ± 3.0%, respectively. Urban air was also a complex matrix and contained a significant amount (12%) of background EC that interfered greatly with weak CNTs and minimally with strong CNTs. The current detection limit at 99% confidence for urban air samples and strong CNTs is 55 ng/m(3) (0.33 ?g). Overall, the PTA method presented here provides an initial approach for quantifying a wide range of CNTs, and we identify specific future research needs to eliminate potential interferences and lower detection limits.

Dataset Information

Quantification of Carbon Nanotubes in Environmental Matrices: Current Capabilities, Case Studies, and Future Prospects.

Publications

Quantification of Carbon Nanotubes in Environmental Matrices: Current Capabilities, Case Studies, and Future Prospects.

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