TY - JOUR A1 - Nxumalo, T. A1 - Akhdhar, A. A1 - Mueller, V. A1 - Simon, Fabian A1 - von der Au, Marcus A1 - Cossmer, Antje A1 - Pfeifer, Jens A1 - Krupp, E. A1 - Meermann, Björn A1 - Kindness, A. A1 - Feldmann, J. T1 - EOF and target PFAS analysis in surface waters affected by sewage treatment effluents in Berlin, Germany N2 - Per- and polyfuoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are emerging organic pollutants and can occur in surface and groundwater. To identify the degree of pollution in surface water with PFAS, often targeted HPLC–ESI–MS/MS has been employed in which commonly 30–40 compounds are analyzed. However, other PFAS and organofuorines remain undetected. We sampled surface water of the river Spree and the Teltow Canal in Berlin, Germany, which are afected by the efuent discharge of wastewater treatment plants. Here, we employed high-resolution continuum source graphite furnace molecular absorption spectrometry (HR-CS-GFMAS) for measuring extractable organofuorines (EOF) and compared in a mass balance approach the total fuorine to the identifed and quantifed PFAS from the targeted analysis. The analysis highlights that the EOF are in the range expected for an urban river system (Winchell et al. in Sci Total Environ 774, 2021). However, downstream of an efuent discharge, the EOF increased by one order of magnitude, e.g., 40.3 to 574 ng F L−1, along the Teltow Canal. From our target analytes, mostly short-chained perfuorinated carboxylic acids and sulfonates occur in the water, which however makes up less than 10% of the EOF. The increase in EOF in the Teltow Canal correlates well with the increase of perfuorohexanoic acid (PFHxA), indicating that PFHxA is characteristic for the discharged EOF but not responsible for the increase. Hence, it points to PFHxA precursor discharge. The study highlights that EOF screening using HR-CS-GFMAS is necessary to identify the full scale of pollution with regard to PFAS and other organofuorines such as pharmaceutical compounds from the efuent of WWTPs. KW - PFAS KW - WWTP KW - GF-MAS PY - 2023 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-580341 DO - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-022-04500-x VL - 415 SP - 1195 EP - 1204 PB - Springer AN - OPUS4-58034 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hendriks, L. A1 - Brunjes, R. A1 - Taskula, S. A1 - Kocic, J. A1 - Hattendorf, B. A1 - Bland, G. A1 - Lowry, G. A1 - Bolea-Fernandez, E. A1 - Vanhaecke, F. A1 - Wang, J. A1 - Baalousha, M. A1 - von der Au, Marcus A1 - Meermann, Björn A1 - Holbrook, T. A1 - Wagner, S. A1 - Harycki, S. A1 - Gundlach-Graham, A. A1 - von der Kammer, F. T1 - Results of an interlaboratory comparison for characterization of Pt nanoparticles using single-particle ICP-TOFMS N2 - This study describes an interlaboratory comparison (ILC) among nine (9) laboratories to evaluate and validate the standard operation procedure (SOP) for single-particle (sp) ICP-TOFMS developed within the context of the Horizon 2020 project ACEnano. The ILC was based on the characterization of two different Pt nanoparticle (NP) suspensions in terms of particle mass, particle number concentration, and isotopic composition. The two Pt NP suspensions were measured using icpTOF instruments (TOFWERK AG, Switzerland). Two Pt NP samples were characterized and mass equivalent spherical sizes (MESSs) of 40.4 ± 7 nm and 58.8 ± 8 nm were obtained, respectively. MESSs showed <16% relative standard deviation (RSD) among all participating labs and <4% RSD after exclusion of the two outliers. A good agreement was achieved between the different participating laboratories regarding particle mass, but the particle number concentration results were more scattered, with <53% RSD among all laboratories, which is consistent with results from previous ILC studies conducted using ICP-MS instrumentation equipped with a sequential mass spectrometer. Additionally, the capabilities of sp-ICP-TOFMS to determine masses on a particle basis are discussed with respect to the potential for particle density determination. Finally, because quasi-simultaneous multi-isotope and multielement determinations are a strength of ICP-TOFMS instrumentation, the precision and trueness of isotope ratio determinations were assessed. The average of 1000 measured particles yielded a precision of below ±1% for intensity ratios of the most abundant Pt isotopes, i.e. 194Pt and 195Pt, while the accuracy of isotope ratios with the lower abundant isotopes was limited by counting statistics. KW - ILC KW - spICP-MS KW - PtNP KW - Nanopartikel PY - 2023 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-580353 DO - https://doi.org/10.1039/d3nr00435j SN - 2040-3364 VL - 15 IS - 26 SP - 11268 EP - 11279 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) AN - OPUS4-58035 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Michail Ioannis, Chronakis A1 - von der Au, Marcus A1 - Meermann, Björn T1 - Single cell-asymmetrical flow field-flow fractionation/ICP-time of flight-mass spectrometry (sc-AF4/ICP-ToF-MS): an efficient alternative for the cleaning and multielemental analysis of individual cells N2 - Asymmetrical Flow Field-Flow Fractionation (AF4), as a cleaning technique, was combined on-line with the multielemental analytical capabilities of an Inductively Coupled Plasma-Time of Flight-Mass Spectrometer (ICP-ToF-MS). In that manner, the heavy ionic matrix effect of untreated cells' samples can be significantly reduced. As a proof of concept, commercial baker's yeast cells were analysed. KW - AF4 KW - Single Cell KW - Cleaning PY - 2022 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-576419 DO - https://doi.org/10.1039/d2ja00264g SN - 0267-9477 VL - 37 IS - 12 SP - 2691 EP - 2700 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry AN - OPUS4-57641 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Retzmann, Anika A1 - Faßbender, Sebastian A1 - Rosner, M. A1 - von der Au, Marcus A1 - Vogl, Jochen T1 - Performance of second generation ICP-TOFMS for (multi-)isotope ratio analysis: a case study on B, Sr and Pb and their isotope fractionation behavior during the measurements N2 - The performance of second generation ICP-TOFMS, equipped with a micro-channel plate (MCP) enabling multi-isotope detection, in terms of isotope ratio precision and instrumental isotopic fractionation (IIF) for (multi-)isotope ratio analysis was thoroughly assessed for B, Sr and Pb. Experimental isotope ratio precision of 0.14 % for 11B/10B intensity ratio, 0.15 % for 87Sr/86Sr intensity ratio and 0.07% for 208Pb/206Pb intensity ratio were obtained at high signal levels ($500 mg L−1) which is comparable to first generation ICP-TOFMS. The long-term stability of isotope ratios, measured over several hours and expressed as repeatability, is between 0.05 % and 1.8 % for B, Sr and Pb. The observed IIF per mass unit is negative for B (i.e., −11 % for 11B/10B) which is in accordance with measurements using sector field (MC) ICP-MS. But the observed IIF per mass unit is positive for Sr (i.e., 2 % for 87Sr/86Sr) and Pb (i.e., 4.5 % for 208Pb/206Pb) which is not in accordance with measurements using sector field (MC) ICP-MS. Furthermore, different IIFs per mass unit were observed for different isotope pairs of the same isotopic system (i.e., Sr, Pb) and adjacent isotopic systems (i.e., Pb vs. Tl). This and the observations from three-isotope plots for Sr and Pb show that ion formation, ion extraction, ion transmission, ion separation and ion detection in second generation ICP-TOFMS is subject to IIF that does not follow the known mass dependent fractionation laws and is possibly caused by mass independent fractionation and/or multiple (contradictory) fractionation processes with varying contributions. The non-mass dependent IIF behavior observed for second generation ICP TOFMS has profound consequences for the IIF correction of isotope raw data, including application of multi-isotope dilution mass spectrometry (IDMS) using ICP-TOFMS. Hence, only IIF correction models that correct also for mass independent fractionation are applicable to calculate reliable isotope ratios using second generation ICP-TOFMS. In the present study, reliable d11B values, and absolute B, Sr and Pb isotope ratios could be determined using the SSB approach in single-element solutions as well as in a mixture of B, Sr and Pb, where the isotopes were measured simultaneously. KW - ICP-TOFMS KW - Isotope delta value KW - Isotope amount ratio KW - Conventional isotope ratio KW - Instrumental isotope fractionation PY - 2023 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-582239 DO - https://doi.org/10.1039/d3ja00084b SN - 0267-9477 VL - 38 IS - 10 SP - 2144 EP - 2158 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry AN - OPUS4-58223 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gehrenkemper, Lennart A1 - Rühl, Isabel A1 - Westphalen, Tanja A1 - Simon, Fabian A1 - von der Au, Marcus A1 - Cossmer, Antje A1 - Meermann, Björn T1 - Investigating the uptake and fate of per- and polyfluoroalkylated substances (PFAS) in bean plants (Phaseolus vulgaris): comparison between target MS and sum parameter analysis via HR-CS-GFMAS N2 - AbstractIn this study, we present a screening method based on molecular absorption spectrometry to study PFAS uptake and fate in plants. To evaluate the suitability of this method we analyzed plant extracts with molecular absorption spectrometry (MAS) as well as liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) for mass balance studies (w(F)). French bean plants (Phaseolus vulgaris) were grown on soil spiked using eight PFAS substances that vary in chain length and functional group composition. Specifically, these include three short-chained (C4–C5), five long-chained (C7–C10) carboxylic acids, one sulfonic acid and one sulfonic amide moieties. To investigate substance-specific PFAS uptake systematically, PFAS were spiked as single substance spike. Additionally, we studied one mixture of the investigated substances in equal proportions regarding w(F) and four PFAS mixtures of unknown composition. After 6 weeks, the plants were separated into four compartments. We analyzed the four compartments as well as the soil for extractable organically bound fluorine (EOF) by high resolution-continuum source-graphite furnace-molecular absorption spectrometry (HR-CS-GFMAS) as well as for sum of ten target-PFAS by LC–MS/MS. All three short-chained PFAS perfluorobutanoic acid (PFBA), perfluorobutanoic sulfonic acid (PFBS) and perfluoropentanoic acid (PFPeA) were determined in high concentrations mainly in the fruits of the investigated plants while long-chained PFAS perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA) and perfluorodecanoic acid (PFDA) were mainly determined in roots. PFBS was determined in remarkably high concentrations in leaves compartment by both quantification methods. Overall, comprehensive results of single substance spikes were in good agreement for both methods except for a few cases. Hence, two phenomena were identified: for mixed PFAS spikes of unknown composition huge differences between EOF and sum of target PFAS were observed with systematically higher EOF values. Overall, both methods indicate comparable results with MS being more reliable for known PFAS contamination and MAS being more valuable to identify PFAS exposure of unknown composition. Graphical Abstract KW - Pollution PY - 2023 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-589394 DO - https://doi.org/10.1186/s12302-023-00811-7 VL - 35 IS - 104 SP - 1 EP - 13 PB - Springer Science and Business Media LLC AN - OPUS4-58939 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Simon, Fabian A1 - Gehrenkemper, Lennart A1 - Becher, S. A1 - Dierckes, G. A1 - Langhammer, Nicole A1 - Cossmer, Antje A1 - von der Au, Marcus A1 - Göckener, B. A1 - Fliedner, A. A1 - Rüdel, H. A1 - Koschorreck, J. A1 - Meermann, Björn T1 - Quantification and characterization of PFASs in suspended particulate matter (SPM) of German rivers using EOF, dTOPA, (non-)target HRMS N2 - In this study, we compare analytical methods for PFAS determination–target analysis, non-target screening (NTS), direct total oxidizable precursor assay (dTOPA) and extractable organically bound fluorine (EOF). Therefore, suspended particulate matter (SPM) samples from German rivers at different locations in time series from2005 to 2020 were analyzed to investigate temporal and spatially resolved trends. In this study 3 PFAS mass balances approaches were utilized: (i) PFAA target vs. PFAS dTOPA, (ii) PFAS target vs. EOF and (iii) PFAS target vs. PFAS dTOPA vs. organofluorines NTS vs. EOF. Mass balance approach (i) revealed high proportions of precursor substances in SPM samples. For the time resolved analysis an increase from 94% (2005) to 97% in 2019 was observable. Also for the spatial resolved analysis precursor proportions were high with >84% at all sampling sites. Mass balance approach (ii) showed that the unidentified EOF (uEOF) fraction increased over time from82% (2005) to 99% (2019). Furthermore, along the river courses the uEOF increased. In the combined mass balance approach (iii) using 4 different analytical approaches EOF fractions were further unraveled. The EOF pattern was fully explainable at the sampling sites at Saar and Elbe rivers. For the time resolved analysis, an increased proportion of the EOF was now explainable. However, still 27% of the EOF for the time resolved analysis and 25% of the EOF for the spatial resolved analysis remained unknown. Therefore, in a complementary approach, both the EOF and dTOPA reveal unknown gaps in the PFAS mass balance and are valuable contributions to PFAS risk assessment. Further research is needed to identify organofluorines summarized in the EOF parameter. KW - PFAS KW - HR-CS-GFMAS KW - Fluorine KW - SPM KW - LC-MS/MS PY - 2023 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.163753 SN - 1879-1026 SN - 0048-9697 VL - 885 SP - 1 EP - 12 PB - Elsevier Science CY - Amsterdam AN - OPUS4-57429 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Simon, Fabian A1 - von der Au, Marcus A1 - Gehrenkemper, Lennart A1 - Meermann, Björn T1 - An optimized method for PFAS analysis using HR–CS–GFMAS via GaF detection N2 - The analysis of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) via sum parameters like extractable organic fluorine (EOF) in combination with high resolution-continuum source-graphite furnace molecular absorption spectrometry (HR–CS–GFMAS) is highly promising regarding fluorine sensitivity and selectivity. However, the HR–CS–GFMAS method includes several drying and heating steps which can lead to losses of volatile PFAS before the molecular formation step using e.g., GaF formation. Hence, the method leads to a strong discrimination of PFAS within the EOF depending on their physical/chemical properties and is therefore associated with reduced accuracy. To reduce this discrepancy and to indicate realistic PFAS pollution values, an optimization of the HR–CS–GFMAS method for PFAS analysis is needed. Hence, we determined fluorine response factors of several PFAS with different physical/chemical properties upon application of systematic optimization steps. We could therefore improve the method's sensitivity for PFAS analysis using a modifier drying pre-treatment step followed by a sequential injection of sample solutions. The highest improvement in sensitivity of volatile PFAS was shown upon addition of a Mg modifier during drying pre-treatment. Thereby, during optimization the relative standard deviation of fluorine response factors could be reduced from 55 % (initial method) to 27 % (optimized method) leading to a more accurate determination of organofluorine sum parameters. The method provides an instrumental LOD and LOQ of β(F) 1.71 μg/L and 5.13 μg/L, respectively. Further validation aimed to investigate several matrix effects with respect to water matrices. Here, substance-specific behavior was observed. For example, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) which was used as calibrator, showed signal suppressions upon high chloride concentrations (>50 mg/L). Hence, a thorough separation of Cl from analytes during sample preparation is needed for accurate sum parameter analysis. KW - PFAS KW - GF-AAS KW - Method optimization PY - 2025 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-610522 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.talanta.2024.126811 VL - 281 SP - 1 EP - 11 PB - Elsevier B.V. AN - OPUS4-61052 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Chronakis, Michail Ioannis A1 - Meermann, Björn A1 - von der Au, Marcus T1 - The evolution of data treatment tools in single-particle and single-cell ICP-MS analytics N2 - Single-particle inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (sp-ICP-MS) is one of the most powerful tools in the thriving field of nanomaterial analysis. Along the same lines, single-cell ICP-MS (sc-ICP-MS) has become an invaluable tool in the study of the variances of cell populations down to a per-cell basis. Their importance and application fields have been listed numerous times, across various reports and reviews. However, not enough attention has been paid to the immense and ongoing development of the tools that are currently available to the analytical community for the acquisition, and more importantly, the treatment of single-particle and single-cell-related data. Due to the ever-increasing demands of modern research, the efficient and dependable treatment of the data has become more important than ever. In addition, the field of single-particle and single-cell analysis suffers due to a large number of approaches for the generated data—with varying levels of specificity and applicability. As a result, finding the appropriate tool or approach, or even comparing results, can be challenging. This article will attempt to bridge these gaps, by covering the evolution and current state of the tools at the disposal of sp-ICP-MS users. Graphical Abstract KW - Trend Article KW - spICP-MS KW - Data Tools KW - scICP-MS PY - 2024 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-610539 DO - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-024-05513-4 SP - 1 EP - 7 PB - Springer Science and Business Media LLC AN - OPUS4-61053 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Meermann, Björn A1 - Lisec, Jan A1 - Jaeger, Carsten A1 - Saatz, Jessica A1 - Traub, Heike A1 - von der Au, Marcus T1 - Mehr Analyten, kleinere Proben N2 - Molekülmassenspektrometrie entwickelt sich weg von klassischer Target- hin zu Nontarget-Analytik. Elementmassenspektrometrie liefert hohe Ortsauflösung beim Element-Imaging und analysiert einzelne Zellen. Aufgrund der Fortschritte bei den Geräten für Timeof-Flight-Massenspektrometrie mit induktiv gekoppeltem Plasma (ICPToF-MS) lässt sich das gesamte Periodensystem der Elemente in kurzen transienten Signalen quasi-simultan massenspektrometrisch erfassen. KW - Massenspektrometrie KW - Non-target KW - ICP-ToF-MS KW - Laser Ablation/Imaging PY - 2021 VL - 69 IS - Juni SP - 64 EP - 67 PB - Wiley-VCH AN - OPUS4-52800 LA - deu AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -