TY - JOUR A1 - You, Zengchao A1 - Nirmalananthan-Budau, Nithiya A1 - Resch-Genger, Ute A1 - Panne, Ulrich A1 - Weidner, Steffen T1 - Separation of polystyrene nanoparticles bearing different carboxyl group densities and functional groups quantification with capillary electrophoresis and asymmetrical flow field flow fractionation N2 - Two sets of polystyrene nanoparticles (PSNPs) with comparable core sizes but different carboxyl group densities were made and separated using asymmetric flow field flow fractionation (AF4), capillary electrophoresis (CE), and the off-line hyphenation of both methods. Our results revealed the significant potential of two-dimensional off-line AF4-CE hyphenation to improve the separation and demonstrated for the first time, the applicability of CE to determine the functional group density of nanoparticles (NPs). Compared to the result acquired with conductometric titration, the result obtained with synthesized 100 nm sized PSNPs revealed only a slight deviation of 1.7%. Commercial 100 nm sized PSNPs yielded a deviation of 4.6 %. For 60 nm sized PSNPs, a larger deviation of 10.6 % between both methods was observed, which is attributed to the lower separation resolution. KW - Nanoparticle KW - A4F KW - Capillary electrophoresis KW - Carboxyl group PY - 2020 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chroma.2020.461392 VL - 1626 SP - 461392 PB - Elsevier B.V. AN - OPUS4-51080 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Jaeger, Carsten A1 - Lintelmann, Jutta A1 - Franke, Raimo A1 - Artati, Anna A1 - Cecil, Alexander A1 - Broda, Frank A1 - Klawonn, Frank A1 - Erban, Alexander A1 - Kopka, Joachim A1 - Fuchs, Beate A1 - Sommer, Ulf A1 - Neumann-Schaal, Meina A1 - O'Connor, Gavin T1 - Analytical practices, use and needs of standard and reference materials in the German-speaking metabolomics community: results of an online survey N2 - Introduction Since the early 2000s, metabolomics has grown rapidly, becoming integral to fields like life sciences, health, and environmental research. This expansion has led to the formation of national and international societies, such as Germany’s DGMet, to tackle emerging challenges. One of DGMet’s goals is to improve measurement quality by assessing community needs for harmonization and standardization. A recent survey within the German-speaking community aimed to identify current practices and gaps in the use of chemical standards and reference materials, to guide future standardization efforts and collaborative initiatives. Methods An online survey was conducted between June 2023 and April 2024. The survey consisted of 38 key questions and was open to research institutions from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Results The survey was accessed by 68 laboratories, with 23 institutes providing complete or partial responses (34% response rate), which is comparable to rates reported in similar surveys within the metabolomics and lipidomics communities. Respondents were mainly experienced researchers from Germany, focusing mainly on health-related (“red”) metabolomics, as indicated by 78% of the respondents, followed by microbial (“grey”, 48%) and plant (“green”, 39%) metabolomics (multiple answers possible). The use of targeted methods was reported more frequently (91%) than that of non-targeted methods (78%), whereas metabolite fractions studied were equally split between polar, midpolar and lipid fractions (83% each). Human (74%), mouse (61%) and Arabidopsis (30%) were the most frequently studied organisms. Most participants used synthetic chemical standards for instrument qualification (83%), calibration (78%), and metabolite identification (74%), while matrix reference materials were mainly applied for quality control (52%) and method validation (44%). There was a strong demand for more standards, especially for metabolite identification and quantification, with cost being a major barrier, particularly for isotopically labelled standards and certified reference materials. Conclusions Valuable insights into the use of standards and reference materials within the German-speaking metabolomics community were obtained. Moving forward, the community should address critical gaps in metabolomics standardization. To achieve this, it must share its knowledge, articulate its needs clearly, and actively engage in joint efforts with national metrology institutes and international standardization initiatives. KW - Reference material KW - Chemical standard KW - Metabolomics KW - Mass spectrometry PY - 2025 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-647303 DO - https://doi.org/10.1007/s11306-025-02360-x VL - 21 IS - 6 SP - 1 EP - 11 PB - Springer-Nature CY - Heidelberg AN - OPUS4-64730 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Meiers, Emelie A1 - Scholl, Juliane A1 - Droas, Morten A1 - Vogel, Christian A1 - Leube, Peter A1 - Sommerfeld, Thomas A1 - Bagheri, A. A1 - Adam, Christian A1 - Seubert, A. A1 - Koch, Matthias T1 - Development and evaluation of analytical strategies for the monitoring of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances from lithium-ion battery recycling materials N2 - Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are well-known as “forever chemicals” and persistent pollutants released by different anthropogenic sources. The potential release of PFAS from accumulating electronic waste and lithium-ion battery (LIB) recycling activities has gained increasing attention in the past years. This creates a need for analytical methods tailored for the determination of PFAS out of environmental matrices related to the named activities or directly out of the concerned materials. In this work, analytical strategies for the monitoring of PFAS in LIB recycling materials were explored for a group of legacy perfluoro sulfonic- and carbonic acids (PFSA and PFCA) and of fluorinated sulfonylimides suspected to be LIB electrolyte ingredients. These analytical strategies comprehend PFAS target approaches with a herein optimized liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) method equipped with a HILIC (hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography) column in combination with the TOP (total oxidizable precursor) assay and an adapted sample preparation method for high-matrix LIB recycling materials. The validated target method was applied to a set of LIB recycling materials: end-of-life batteries, black masses from hydrometallurgical recycling, and gas absorption solutions from thermal treatment of black masses as part of the recycling procedure. Investigation results show that the LIB industry can be connected to the release of both “LIB”-PFAS, such as the target sulfonylimides, and “already-legacy” PFAS, like the PFSA and PFCA. Especially, the presence of trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) as an emerging pollutant in every investigated LIB material type underlines the threat of PFAS emissions from LIB waste and recycling activities. KW - Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) KW - Battery PY - 2025 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-647015 DO - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-025-06165-8 SN - 1618-2642 VL - 417 SP - 6567 EP - 6583 PB - Springer Science and Business Media LLC AN - OPUS4-64701 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Sebald, M. A1 - Gebauer, J. A1 - Koch, Matthias T1 - Diastereoselective synthesis of (±)-trichodiene and (±)-trichodiene-D3 as analytical standards for the on-site quantification of trichothecenes N2 - The ubiquitous Fusarium genus is responsible for the spoilage of vast amounts of cereals and fruits. Besides the economic damage, the danger to human and animal health by the concomitant exposure to mycotoxins represents a serious problem. A large number of Fusarium species produce a variety of different mycotoxins of which the class of trichothecenes are of particular importance due to their toxicity. Being identified as the common volatile precursor during the biosynthesis of trichothecenes, (−)-trichodiene (TD) is considered to be a biomarker for the respective mycotoxin content in food samples. We postulated that the development of a non-invasive, on-site GC-IMS method for the quantification of (−)-trichodiene supplemented with a stationary SIDA headspace GC-MS reference method would allow circumventing the laborious and expensive analyses of individual trichothecenes in large cereal samples. In this work we present the syntheses of the required native calibration standard and an isotope labeled (TD-D3) internal standard. KW - Mycotoxins KW - Volatile marker KW - Food analysis KW - Screening method KW - Mobile analysis PY - 2021 DO - https://doi.org/10.1039/d1ob01778k VL - 19 IS - 45 SP - 9872 EP - 9879 PB - RSC AN - OPUS4-53993 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - You, Zengchao A1 - Hoffmann, V. A1 - Morcillo, Dalia A1 - Agudo Jácome, Leonardo A1 - Leonhardt, Robert A1 - Winckelmann, Alexander A1 - Richter, Silke A1 - Recknagel, Sebastian A1 - Abad Andrade, Carlos Enrique T1 - Investigation of aluminum current collector degradation in lithium-ion batteries using glow discharge optical emission spectrometry N2 - In this work, we employed glow discharge optical emission spectrometry (GD-OES) depth profiling as a fast and semi-quantitative method to investigate the aluminum (Al) current collector degradation in commercial lithium cobalt oxide (LCO) pouch cells with no Al2O3 pretreatment. After battery aging, a heterogeneous deposit was found on the surface of the cathode. Gray hotspot areas within an extensive pale white region were formed. Consistent with energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis of micro-cross sections milled via targeted focused ion beam (FIB), an Al-containing layer of approximately 3 µm can be observed using GD-OES. We attribute one main cause of this layer is the degradation of the Al current collector. The nonuniform growth of this layer was investigated by performing GD-OES depth profiling at different in-plane positions. We found that the gray area has a higher mass concentration of Al, probably in metallic form, whereas the white area was probably covered more homogeneously with Al2O3, resulting from the inhomogeneous distribution of the pitting positions on the current collector. Compared to FIB-EDX, GD-OES enables a faster and more convenient depth profile analysis, which allows the more productive characterization of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), and consequently benefits the development of preferable battery materials. KW - GD-OES KW - depth profiles KW - Li-ion battery KW - battery aging mechanism KW - current collector corrosion PY - 2023 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sab.2023.106681 SN - 0584-8547 VL - 205 SP - 106681 PB - Elsevier B.V. CY - Amsterdam, Netherlands AN - OPUS4-57383 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Duarte-Ruiz, D. A1 - Saßnick, H.-D. A1 - Ferreira De Araujo, F. A1 - Gentzmann, Marie A1 - Huthwelker, T. A1 - Cocchi, C T1 - X-ray absorption spectroscopy of scandium oxide polymorphs N2 - Scandium oxide (Sc2O3) is a rare-earth oxide with significant potential in key technological areas, but due to its limited supply a deep understanding of its characteristics in different crystalline phases is still missing. Here, we present a combined experimental and ab initio X-ray absorption spectroscopy investigation of Sc2O3 focusing on excitations from the O K-edge and the Sc L2,3-edge. While measurements are performed on a cubic sample, the most stable phase under ambient conditions, six different polymorphs are computed, including two high-pressure phases with a trigonal and monoclinic lattice in addition to the cubic phase, as well as three computationally predicted structures. Our analysis of the structural and electronic properties reveals significant similarities between the cubic polymorph and the high-pressure trigonal phase, while the monoclinic crystal exhibits distinct features. The spectra simulated for these similar phases from the solution of the Bethe–Salpeter equation show very good agreement with measurements. Additional comparison with results computed in the independent-particle approximation highlights the dominant role of electron–hole correlations in shaping the absorption features, particularly at the O K-edge, where a common pattern with the features of other sesquioxides is identified. Our findings offer new insight into the spectral fingerprints of Sc2O3 polymorphs, aiding in situ characterization and informing sustainable materials management. KW - Scandium PY - 2025 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-650806 DO - https://doi.org/10.1039/d5ra06446e VL - 15 IS - 56 SP - 47814 EP - 47825 AN - OPUS4-65080 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Sun, Yijuan A1 - Pérez-Padilla, Víctor A1 - Valderrey, Virginia A1 - Bell, Jérémy A1 - Gawlitza, Kornelia A1 - Rurack, Knut T1 - Ratiometric detection of perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids using dual fluorescent nanoparticles and a miniaturised microfluidic platform N2 - The widespread contamination of soil and water with perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) has caused considerable societal and scientific concern. Legislative measures and an increased need for remediation require effective on-site analytical methods for PFAS management. Here we report on the development of a green-fluorescent guanidine-BODIPY indicator monomer incorporated into a molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) for the selective detection of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). Complexation of PFOA by the indicator, which is mediated by concerted protonation-induced ion pairing-assisted hydrogen bonding, significantly enhances fluorescence in polar organic solvents. The MIP forms as a thin layer on silica nanoparticles doped with tris(bipyridine)ruthenium(II) chloride, which provides an orange emission signal as internal reference, resulting in low measurement uncertainties. Using a liquid-liquid extraction protocol, this assay enables the direct detection of PFOA in environmental water samples and achieves a detection limit of 0.11 µM. Integration into an opto-microfluidic system enables a compact and user-friendly system for detecting PFOA in less than 15 minutes. KW - PFAS KW - Molecular imprinting KW - Microfluidics KW - Fluorescence KW - Onsite assay PY - 2025 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-650270 DO - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-66872-9 SN - 2041-1723 VL - 16 IS - 1 SP - 1 EP - 16 PB - Springer Science and Business Media LLC AN - OPUS4-65027 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hoque, Maroof Arshadul A1 - Sommerfeld, Thomas A1 - Lisec, Jan A1 - Das, Prasenjit A1 - Prinz, Carsten A1 - Heinekamp, Christian A1 - Stolar, Tomislav A1 - Etter, Martin A1 - Rosenberger, David A1 - George, Janine A1 - Bhattacharya, Biswajit A1 - Emmerling, Franziska T1 - Mechanochemically Synthesized Covalent Organic Framework Effectively Captures PFAS Contaminants N2 - Per‐ and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are persistent environmental contaminants that pose significant health risks, prompting urgent efforts to develop effective removal methods and adsorbers. Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are metal‐free adsorbers with high stability and tunable porosity. A highly crystalline COF is synthesised mechanochemically using 1,3,5‐tris(4‐aminophenyl)benzene (TAPB) and 1,3,5‐triformylbenzene (TFB). The formation dynamics are monitored in real time with time‐resolved in situ synchrotron X‐ray diffraction. The TAPB‐TFB COF demonstrates good efficiency in eliminating PFAS from water. Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) are effectively extracted, and most of the adsorption occurred within the first 10 min. Additionally, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and DFT calculations are employed to elucidate the molecular interactions between PFAS and the COF framework. The rapid and efficient removal of PFAS makes TAPB‐TFB COF a promising material for water treatment applications. KW - COFs KW - Ball-milling KW - PFAS PY - 2025 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-648712 DO - https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.202509275 SN - 1613-6810 VL - 21 IS - 44 SP - 1 EP - 8 PB - Wiley AN - OPUS4-64871 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Sathiyamani, S. A1 - Ngiam, S. A1 - Bonnerot, O. A1 - Jaengsawang, S. A1 - Panarut, P. A1 - Helman-Wazny, Agnieszka A1 - Colini, C. T1 - Material Characterisation of 19–20th Century Manuscripts from Northern Thailand N2 - Material analysis was carried out on four manuscripts from Northern Thailand, which included two palm-leaf manuscripts and two paper manuscripts. The two palm-leaf manuscripts MS 6 and MS 7 were found to have been written in the traditional method, wherein text was incised on the surface of the leaves, and then soot applied to the surfaces, confirmed by the identification of carbon ink. MS 7 additionally showed the presence of trace levels of iron in the ink, either from soot paste or from the stylus used for inscribing. The paper manuscript MS 3 was written in iron-gall ink, with sections written using a methyl-violet based ink while MS 4 was written in carbon ink. The paper used in the case of MS 3 was found to be machine made, while khoi fibres (Streblus asper) were used for making the paper used for MS 4. A combination of traditional and modern pigments, like molybdenum orange, was used for decorating the edges and cover. The results improved our understanding of these manuscripts in particular, and also provided us with insights about the rapid adoption of modern materials and their incorporation into the production of written artefacts from Northern Thailand in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. KW - Materials analysis KW - Paper manuscript KW - Palm-leaf manuscript KW - Writing inks PY - 2024 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-652586 DO - https://doi.org/10.1515/res-2023-0028 SN - 0034-5806 VL - 45 IS - 2-3 SP - 117 EP - 140 PB - Walter de Gruyter GmbH AN - OPUS4-65258 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - A. Monikh, Fazel A1 - Materić, Dušan A1 - Valsami-Jones, Eugenia A1 - Grossart, Hans-Peter A1 - Altmann, Korinna A1 - Holzinger, Rupert A1 - Lynch, Iseult A1 - Stubenrauch, Jessica A1 - Peijnenburg, Willie T1 - Challenges in studying microplastics in human brain N2 - Human exposure to microplastics and nanoplastics (MNPs) is an emerging concern with potential implications for health. As awareness of this issue grows, it has prompted increasing scientific attention toward understanding if, and how, MNPs accumulate in human tissues. In a recent study, Nihart et al.1 used the analytical technique of pyrolysis gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (Py-GC–MS) to detect MNPs in human liver, kidney and brain, reporting the highest concentrations in the brain, with polyethylene as the predominant polymer. The study as reported appears to face methodological challenges, such as limited contamination controls and lack of validation steps, which May affect the reliability of the reported concentrations. In this Matters Arising, we highlight methodological limitations that have General relevance for advancing robust and reproducible MNP detection in human biomonitoring studies. KW - Microplastics KW - Nanoplastics KW - Py-GC-MS PY - 2025 DO - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-025-04045-3 SN - 1078-8956 VL - 31 IS - 12 SP - 1 EP - 3 PB - Springer Science and Business Media LLC AN - OPUS4-64698 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -