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Special Issue "Nanosafety: Overcoming Characterisation Challenges in Complex Media"

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A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Nanochemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2022) | Viewed by 8301

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Sophie Briffa

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Guest Editor

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
Interests: nanomaterial synthesis; functionalisation and characterisation; nanomaterial behaviour; transformations and ageing; nanosafety

Prof. Dr. Eugenia Valsami-Jones

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Guest Editor

University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
Interests: nanomaterial properties; reactivity; toxicity; solubility; bio-nano interactions
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The increased use of engineered nanomaterials results in greater environmental and human exposure, giving rise to toxicity concerns. For the future wider acceptability of nanotechnology, a well-founded and robust legislative framework that will ensure safe development of nano-enabled products is needed. The development of such a framework has proven particularly challenging; at the heart of the challenge lies the difficulty in the reliable and reproducible characterisation of nanomaterials given their novelty, variety in properties and forms and dynamic nature, particularly in complex conditions, such as within different biological, environmental and technological compartments. In this Special Issue, we invite investigators to contribute original research articles, as well as review articles that are related to overcoming characterisation challenges in complex environmental media. We are particularly interested in research that works toward the development of techniques, hyphenation of different analytical techniques and complex characterisation of NMs in biological environments.

Prof. Eugenia Valsami-Jones
Dr. Sophie Briffa
Guest Editors

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Keywords

Nanomaterials
Nanosafety
Characterisation
Complex media
Ecotoxicology
Hyphenated techniques

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

Open AccessArticle

Benchmarking the ACEnano Toolbox for Characterisation of Nanoparticle Size and Concentration by Interlaboratory Comparisons

Molecules 2021, 26(17), 5315; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules26175315 - 01 Sep 2021

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1929 | Correction

Abstract

ACEnano is an EU-funded project which aims at developing, optimising and validating methods for the detection and characterisation of nanomaterials (NMs) in increasingly complex matrices to improve confidence in the results and support their use in regulation. Within this project, several interlaboratory comparisons (ILCs) for the determination of particle size and concentration have been organised to benchmark existing analytical methods. In this paper the results of a number of these ILCs for the characterisation of NMs are presented and discussed. The results of the analyses of pristine well-defined particles such as 60 nm Au NMs in a simple aqueous suspension showed that laboratories are well capable of determining the sizes of these particles. The analysis of particles in complex matrices or formulations such as consumer products resulted in larger variations in particle sizes within technologies and clear differences in capability between techniques. Sunscreen lotion sample analysis by laboratories using spICP-MS and TEM/SEM identified and confirmed the TiO₂ particles as being nanoscale and compliant with the EU definition of an NM for regulatory purposes. In a toothpaste sample orthogonal results by PTA, spICP-MS and TEM/SEM agreed and stated the TiO₂ particles as not fitting the EU definition of an NM. In general, from the results of these ILCs we conclude that laboratories are well capable of determining particle sizes of NM, even in fairly complex formulations. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanosafety: Overcoming Characterisation Challenges in Complex Media)

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Open AccessArticle

Characterisation of Engineered Nanomaterials in Nano-Enabled Products Exhibiting Priority Environmental Exposure

Raisibe Florence Lehutso

Yolanda Tancu

Arjun Maity

and

Melusi Thwala

Molecules 2021, 26(5), 1370; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules26051370 - 04 Mar 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1566

Abstract

Analytical limitations have constrained the determination of nanopollution character from real-world sources such as nano-enabled products (NEPs), thus hindering the development of environmental safety guidelines for engineered nanomaterials (ENMs). This study examined the properties of ENMs in 18 commercial products: sunscreens, personal care products, clothing, and paints—products exhibiting medium to a high potential for environmental nanopollution. It was found that 17 of the products contained ENMs; 9, 3, 3, and 2 were incorporated with nTiO₂, nAg, binaries of nZnO + nTiO₂, and nTiO₂ + nAg, respectively. Commonly, the nTiO₂ were elongated or angular, whereas nAg and nZnO were near-spherical and angular in morphology, respectively. The size ranges (width × length) were 7–48 × 14–200, 34–35 × 37–38, and 18–28 nm for nTiO₂, nZnO, and nAg respectively. All ENMs were negatively charged. The total concentration of Ti, Zn, and Ag in the NEPs were 2.3 × 10⁻⁴–4.3%, 3.4–4.3%, and 1.0 × 10⁻⁴–11.3 × 10⁻³%, respectively. The study determined some key ENM characteristics required for environmental risk assessment; however, challenges persist regarding the accurate determination of the concentration in NEPs. Overall, the study confirmed NEPs as actual sources of nanopollution; hence, scenario-specific efforts are recommended to quantify their loads into water resources. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanosafety: Overcoming Characterisation Challenges in Complex Media)

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Open AccessArticle

Fast and Purification-Free Characterization of Bio-Nanoparticles in Biological Media by Electrical Asymmetrical Flow Field-Flow Fractionation Hyphenated with Multi-Angle Light Scattering and Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis Detection

Roland Drexel

Agnieszka Siupa

Pauline Carnell-Morris

Michele Carboni

Jo Sullivan

and

Florian Meier

Molecules 2020, 25(20), 4703; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules25204703 - 14 Oct 2020

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 3924

Abstract

Accurate physico-chemical characterization of exosomes and liposomes in biological media is challenging due to the inherent complexity of the sample matrix. An appropriate purification step can significantly reduce matrix interferences, and thus facilitate analysis of such demanding samples. Electrical Asymmetrical Flow Field-Flow Fractionation (EAF4) provides online sample purification while simultaneously enabling access to size and Zeta potential of sample constituents in the size range of approx. 1–1000 nm. Hyphenation of EAF4 with Multi-Angle Light Scattering (MALS) and Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis (NTA) detection adds high resolution size and number concentration information turning this setup into a powerful analytical platform for the comprehensive physico-chemical characterization of such challenging samples. We here present EAF4-MALS hyphenated with NTA for the analysis of liposomes and exosomes in complex, biological media. Coupling of the two systems was realized using a flow splitter to deliver the sample at an appropriate flow speed for the NTA measurement. After a proof-of-concept study using polystyrene nanoparticles, the combined setup was successfully applied to analyze liposomes and exosomes spiked into cell culture medium and rabbit serum, respectively. Obtained results highlight the benefits of the EAF4-MALS-NTA platform to study the behavior of these promising drug delivery vesicles under in vivo like conditions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanosafety: Overcoming Characterisation Challenges in Complex Media)

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