TY - JOUR A1 - Senges, Gene A1 - de Oliveira Guilherme Buzanich, Ana A1 - Lindič, Tilen A1 - Gully, Tyler A. A1 - Winter, Marlon A1 - Radtke, Martin A1 - Röder, Bettina A1 - Steinhauer, Simon A1 - Paulus, Beate A1 - Emmerling, Franziska A1 - Riedel, Sebastian T1 - Unravelling highly oxidized nickel centers in the anodic black film formed during the Simons process by in situ X-ray absorption near edge structure spectroscopy N2 - The electrofluorination after Simons has been used for the last century to produce everyday life materials. An in situ XANES investigation of the controversially debated black film apparent in the Simons process revealed high-valent nickel centers. KW - Synchrotron KW - BAMline KW - XANES PY - 2024 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-608366 DO - https://doi.org/10.1039/d3sc06081k SN - 2041-6520 VL - 15 IS - 12 SP - 4504 EP - 4509 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) AN - OPUS4-60836 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Monikh, Fazel A. 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 - TY - JOUR A1 - Béalu, Zoé A1 - Walther, Johanna A1 - Abusafia, Attaallah A1 - Altmann, Korinna A1 - Meurer, Maren A1 - Gretzschel, Oliver A1 - Schäfer, Michael A1 - Steinmetz, Heidrun T1 - Removal of Organic Micropollutants and Microplastics via Ozonation Followed by Granular Activated Carbon Filtration N2 - Discharge from Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTPs) can result in the emission of organic micropollutants (OMPs) and microplastics (MPs) into the aquatic environment. To prevent this harmful release, a pilot plant consisting of an ozonation followed by a granular activated carbon (GAC) filter was operated at a WWTP in Germany, and its side-effects on the concentrations of nitrogen (N) and phosphorous (P) compounds were measured. Over 80% of OMPs and transformation products were removed during the operating time (around 6000 bed volumes) no matter the ozone dose (from around 0.1 to 0.5 mgO3/mgDOC), except for Diatrizoic acid, whose breakthrough appeared at 3500 BV. Formation of the oxidation by-product, NDMA, increased with higher ozone doses, but the concentration remained below 100 ng/L. Bromate was formed at a higher ozone dose (0.4 mgO3/mgDOC) but at a low concentration—below 10 µg/L. The MP particles detected in the inflow (PE, SBR, PP, and PS) were effectively eliminated to a high degree, with a removal rate of at least 92%. Carbon parameters (COD, DOC, and SAC254) were removed further by the pilot plant, but to different extents. As expected, nitrate was formed during ozonation, while nitrite’s concentration decreased. Further, nitrite decreased and nitrate increased within the GAC filter, while ammonium was eliminated by at least 90%. Total P concentration decreased after the pilot, but the concentration of PO4-P increased. KW - Microplastics KW - TED-GC/MS KW - Granular Activated Carbon Filtration KW - Removal of Organic Micropollutants KW - Wastewater treatment plant PY - 2024 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-615209 DO - https://doi.org/10.3390/environments11110241 VL - 11 IS - 11 SP - 1 EP - 38 PB - MDPI AG AN - OPUS4-61520 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Fadda, Marta A1 - Sacco, Alessio A1 - Altmann, Korinna A1 - Ciornii, Dmitri A1 - Milczewski, Frank A1 - Bañares, Miguel A. A1 - Portela, Raquel A1 - Giovannozzi, Andrea Mario A1 - Rossi, Andrea Mario T1 - Tracking nanoplastics in drinking water: a new frontier with the combination of dielectrophoresis and Raman spectroscopy N2 - Detection of micro- (MPs) and nanoplastics (NPs) in food and environmental matrices has been gaining relevance due to their potential toxicological effects on human health. While MPs have been detected in a wide range of complex matrices, suitable methods for the characterization and chemical identification of NPs are still lacking, primarily due to significant methodological challenges associated with their nano-specific physiochemical properties, including size distribution (1 nm – 1 µm), dynamic surface chemical changes, and carbon-based composition, which complicate their detection compared to engineered nanomaterials. To overcome the traditional limitations of spectroscopic techniques in terms of spatial resolution and sensitivity at the sub-micrometer level, a novel label-free methodology is presented for specifically identifying the chemical composition of NPs directly in suspension by combining Raman spectroscopy with dielectrophoresis (DEP). Using a custom-built device, small volumes of NPs are injected into a dielectrophoretic cell and locally trapped by DEP forces to fill the Raman confocal volume, facilitating their detection and identification, and providing high signal-to-noise ratio Raman spectra for more reliable analysis. This approach was successfully applied to both Milli-Q water and a commercial brand of drinking water, enabling the rapid identification of various types of NPs with different sizes and polymer compositions at concentrations as low as 20 µg/mL. These included certified reference polystyrene beads ranging from 800 to 60 nm in diameter, as well as polydisperse NPs, more representative of real samples in terms of size distribution and polymer type, such as polyethylene (450 nm), polypropylene (180 nm), and polyethylene terephthalate (100 nm). Moreover, the chemical fingerprint of each NPs was thoroughly investigated and compared with the corresponding bulk polymers, highlighting possible changes in the Raman bands due to surface oxidation or nanometer-scale effect. Therefore, this innovative method can be considered a valuable approach for addressing gaps in the detection and identification of NPs, as well as for monitoring their dynamic phisiochemical changes in real matrices. KW - Nanoplastics KW - Water contaminants KW - Raman microspectroscopy KW - Dielectrophoresis PY - 2025 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-633658 DO - https://doi.org/10.1186/s43591-025-00131-y SN - 2662-4966 VL - 5 IS - 1 SP - 1 EP - 11 PB - Springer Science and Business Media LLC AN - OPUS4-63365 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bartczak, Dorota A1 - Sikora, Aneta A1 - Goenaga-Infante, Heidi A1 - Altmann, Korinna A1 - Drexel, Roland A1 - Meier, Florian A1 - Alasonati, Enrica A1 - Lelong, Marc A1 - Cado, Florence A1 - Chivas-Joly, Carine A1 - Fadda, Marta A1 - Sacco, Alessio A1 - Rossi, Andrea Mario A1 - Pröfrock, Daniel A1 - Wippermann, Dominik A1 - Barbero, Francesco A1 - Fenoglio, Ivana A1 - Booth, Andy M. A1 - Sørensen, Lisbet A1 - Igartua, Amaia A1 - Wouters, Charlotte A1 - Mast, Jan A1 - Barbaresi, Marta A1 - Rossi, Francesca A1 - Piergiovanni, Maurizio A1 - Mattarozzi, Monica A1 - Careri, Maria A1 - Caebergs, Thierry A1 - Piette, Anne-Sophie A1 - Parot, Jeremie A1 - Giovannozzi, Andrea Mario T1 - Multiparameter characterisation of a nano-polypropylene representative test material with fractionation, light scattering, high-resolution microscopy, spectroscopy, and spectrometry methods N2 - Reference and quality control materials with comparable physicochemical properties to nanoplastic contaminants present in environmental and food nanoplastics are currently lacking. Here we report a nanoplastic polypropylene material prepared using a top-down approach involving mechanical fragmentation of larger plastics. The material was found to be homogeneous and stable in suspension and has been characterised for average particle size, size distribution range, particle number concentration, polypropylene mass fraction and inorganic impurity Content using a wide range of analytical methods, including AF4, cFFF, PTA, (MA)DLS, MALS, SEM, AFM, TEM, STEM, EDS,Raman, ICP-MS and pyGC-MS. The material was found to have a broad size distribution, ranging from 50 nm to over 200 nm, with the average particle size value dependent on the technique used to determine it. Particle number concentration ranged from 1.7–2.4 × 1010 g−1 , according to PTA. Spectroscopy techniques confirmed that the material was polypropylene, with evidence of aging due to an increased level of oxidation. The measured mass fraction was found to depend on the marker used and ranged between 3 and 5 μg g−1 . Inorganic impurities such as Si, Al, Mg, K, Na, S, Fe, Cl and Ca were also identified at ng g−1 levels. Comparability and complementarity across the measurement methods and techniques is also discussed. KW - Polypropylene KW - Nanoplastics KW - Analytics KW - Reference material KW - Scattering methods PY - 2026 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-654680 DO - https://doi.org/10.1039/D5EN00917K SN - 2051-8153 SP - 1 EP - 15 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) AN - OPUS4-65468 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ponader, Marco A1 - Röder, Bettina A1 - Paul, Martin A1 - Weller, Michael G. T1 - Sintered glass monoliths as supports for affinity columns N2 - A novel stationary phase for affinity separations is presented. This material is based on sintered borosilicate glass readily available as semi-finished filter plates with defined porosity and surface area. The material shows fast binding kinetics and excellent long-term stability under real application conditions due to lacking macropores and high mechanical rigidity. The glass surface can be easily modified with standard organosilane chemistry to immobilize selective binders or other molecules used for biointeraction. In this paper, the manufacturing of the columns and their respective column holders by 3D printing is shown in detail. The model system protein A/IgG was chosen as an example to examine the properties of such monolithic columns under realistic application conditions. Several specifications, such as (dynamic) IgG capacity, pressure stability, long-term performance, productivity, non-specific binding, and peak shape, are presented. It could be shown that due to the very high separation speed, 250 mg antibody per hour and column can be collected, which surpasses the productivity of most standard columns of the same size. The total IgG capacity of the shown columns is around 4 mg (5.5 mg/mL), which is sufficient for most tasks in research laboratories. The cycle time of an IgG separation can be less than 1 min. Due to the glass material’s excellent pressure resistance, these columns are compatible with standard HPLC systems. This is usually not the case with standard affinity columns, limited to manual use or application in low-pressure systems. The use of a standard HPLC system also improves the ability for automation, which enables the purification of hundreds of cell supernatants in one day. The sharp peak shape of the elution leads to an enrichment effect, which might increase the concentration of IgG by a factor of 3. The final concentration of IgG can be around 7.5 mg/mL without the need for an additional nano-filtration step. The purity of the IgG was > 95% in one step and nearly 99% with a second polishing run. KW - Affinity Chromatography KW - Affinity Extraction KW - Affinity Separation KW - Protein Purification KW - Down Stream Processing KW - Antibody Purification KW - Diagnostic Antibodies KW - Therapeutic Antibodies KW - Automated Purification KW - HPLC KW - FPLC KW - IgG determination KW - Concentration step KW - Monoclonal Antibodies KW - Polyclonal Antibodies KW - Human Plasma KW - Glass Support KW - Borosilicate Glass KW - Monolith KW - Sintered Material KW - Additive Manufacturing KW - Column holder KW - Construction KW - Open Science KW - Citizen Science KW - Protein A KW - Regeneration KW - High-Speed Separations KW - Robustness PY - 2021 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-527581 DO - https://doi.org/10.3390/separations8050056 SN - 2297-8739 N1 - Geburtsname von Ponader, Marco: Wilke, M. - Birth name of Ponader, Marco: Wilke, M. VL - 8 IS - 5 SP - 1 EP - 16 PB - MDPI CY - Basel AN - OPUS4-52758 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 CY - Weinheim AN - OPUS4-64871 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - de Oliveira Guilherme Buzanich, Ana A1 - Radtke, Martin A1 - Yusenko, Kirill A1 - Stawski, Tomasz A1 - Kulow, Anicó A1 - Cakir, Cafer Tufan A1 - Röder, Bettina A1 - Naese, Christoph A1 - Britzke, Ralf A1 - Sintschuk, Michael A1 - Emmerling, Franziska T1 - BAMline - A real-life sample materials research beamline N2 - With increasing demand and environmental concerns, researchers are exploring new materials that can perform as well or better than traditional materials while reducing environmental impact. The BAMline, a real-life sample materials research beamline, provides unique insights into materials’ electronic and chemical structure at different time and length scales. The beamline specializes in x-ray absorption spectroscopy, x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, and tomography experiments. This enables real-time optimization of material properties and performance for various applications, such as energy transfer, energy storage, catalysis, and corrosion resistance. This paper gives an overview of the analytical methods and sample environments of the BAMline, which cover non-destructive testing experiments in materials science, chemistry, biology, medicine, and cultural heritage. We also present our own synthesis methods, processes, and equipment developed specifically for the BAMline, and we give examples of synthesized materials and their potential applications. Finally, this article discusses the future perspectives of the BAMline and its potential for further advances in sustainable materials research. KW - Extended X-ray absorption fine structure KW - Energy storage KW - Environmental impacts KW - Nondestructive testing techniques KW - X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy KW - Corrosion KW - Near edge X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy KW - X-ray absorption spectroscopy PY - 2023 DO - https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0157194 VL - 158 IS - 24 SP - 1 EP - 22 PB - AIP Publishing AN - OPUS4-57824 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wiesner, Yosri A1 - Altmann, Korinna A1 - Braun, U. T1 - Determination of Microplastic Mass Content by Thermal Extraction Desorption Gas Chromatography– Mass Spectrometry N2 - The scientific and practical challenge of detecting microplastics (MPs) in the environment in a targeted and rapid manner is solved by innovative coupling of thermogravimetric analysis with mass spectrometric methods. Fast identification and quantitative determination of most thermoplastic polymers and elastomers is possible by using thermal extraction Desorption gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (TED-GC–MS). KW - Microplastics KW - Mikroplastik KW - TED-GC/MS KW - Microplastics analytic KW - Mikroplastik Massegehalt PY - 2021 VL - 17 IS - 3 SP - 2 EP - 7 PB - MultiMedia (UK) LLC CY - Cranbury AN - OPUS4-52570 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Eisentraut, Paul A1 - Altmann, Korinna T1 - Repräsentative Mikroplastik-Detektion in Umweltproben - Weiterentwicklung der TED-GC/MS N2 - Die große Herausforderung in der Detektion von Mikroplastik (MP)‑Partikeln (1-1000 µm) besteht darin, sie neben Millionen von natürlichen Partikeln in Umweltproben nachzuweisen. Zum Aufspüren von Senken, Eintragspfaden und für Monitoring-Kampagnen ist ein schnelles, automatisiertes Verfahren unerlässlich. Ein solches Verfahren wurde an der Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM) mit der ThermoExtraktion/Desorption-Gaschromatographie-Massenspektrometrie (TED-GC/MS) in den letzten Jahren entwickelt. KW - Mikroplastik KW - TED-GC/MS PY - 2021 UR - https://analyticalscience.wiley.com/do/10.1002/was.0004000195 SN - 0016-3538 SP - 2 EP - 5 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim AN - OPUS4-54266 LA - deu AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -