What is it about?
The increasing use of nanoparticles in commercial products requires elaborated techniques to detect NP in the tissue of exposed organisms. However, due to the low amount of material, the detection and exact localization of particles within tissue sections is demanding. In this respect, Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) and Ion Beam Microscopy (IBM) are promising techniques, because they both offer sub-micron lateral resolutions along with high sensitivity.
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Why is it important?
Both techniques revealed that ZrO2 nanoparticles occurred mostly agglomerated in phagocytic cells with only small quantities being associated to the lung epithelium, with Zr, S, and P colocalized within the same biological structures.
Perspectives
While ion beam microscopy provided quantitative information on element distribution, 3D ToF-SIMS delivered a higher lateral resolution and a lower limit of detection under these conditions. We, therefore, conclude that 3D ToF-SIMS, although not yet a quantitative technique, is a highly valuable tool for the detection of NP in biological tissue.
Professor Carsten Engelhard
University of Siegen
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This page is a summary of: Detection of ZrO2 Nanoparticles in Lung Tissue Sections by Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry and Ion Beam Microscopy, Nanomaterials, January 2018, MDPI AG,
DOI: 10.3390/nano8010044.
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