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Research article2018Peer reviewedOpen access

Identification of platinum nanoparticles in road dust leachate by single particle inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry

Folens, Karel; Van Acker, Thibaut; Bolea-Fernandez, Eduardo; Cornelis, Geert; Vanhaecke, Frank; Du Laing, Gijs; Rauch, Sebastien

Abstract

Elevated platinum(Pt) concentrations are found in road dust as a result of emissions from catalytic converters in vehicles. This study investigates the occurrence of Pt in road dust collected in Ghent (Belgium) and Gothenburg (Sweden). Total Pt contents, determined by tandem ICP-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS/MS), were in the range of 5 to 79 ng g(-1), comparable to the Pt content in road dust of other medium-sized cities. Further sample characterization was performed by single particle (sp) ICP-MS following an ultrasonic extraction procedure using stormwater runoff for leaching. The method was found to be suitable for the characterization of Pt nanoparticles in road dust leachates. The extraction was optimized using road dust reference material BCR-723, for which an extraction efficiency of 2.7% was obtained by applying 144 kJ of ultrasonic energy. Using this method, between 0.2% and 18% of the Pt present was extracted from road dust samples. spICP-MS analysis revealed that Pt in the leachate is entirely present as nanoparticles of sizes between 9 and 21 nm. Although representing only a minor fraction of the total content in road dust, the nanoparticulate Pt leachate is most susceptible to biological uptake and hence most relevant in terms of bioavailability. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords

Platinum; Nanoparticles; Road dust; Single particle ICP-MS; Catalytic converters; ICP-MS/MS

Published in

Science of the Total Environment
2018, Volume: 615, pages: 849-856
Publisher: ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

    Sustainable Development Goals

    Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
    Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation

    UKÄ Subject classification

    Environmental Sciences

    Publication identifier

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.09.285

    Permanent link to this page (URI)

    https://res.slu.se/id/publ/93047