TY - CONF A1 - Jakubowski, Norbert A1 - Müller, L. A1 - Traub, Heike A1 - Esteban-Fernández, D. A1 - Panne, Ulrich A1 - Wanka, Antje A1 - Kneipp, J. T1 - Method development for metal detection at cellular levels by ICP-MS N2 - An overview about different analytical approaches will be presented of how to detect metals in individual biological cells by use of ICP-MS. For this purpose, we are using different sample introduction systems for ICP-MS for detection, imaging and quantification of metals at cellular levels. By use of laser ablation, we have studied the up-take by and distribution of nanoparticles in single cells. Recently we have developed staining techniques to measure protein and DNA content of cells and identifying the cell status by immunoassays using metal-tagging of antibodies. New research based on cell arrays will be shortly discussed. Using pneumatic nebulization and microdroplet generation, we have also studied the up-take of nanoparticles and toxic metals as well as essential elements in single cells using different ICP-MS mass spectrometric concepts (sector field instrument, triple-quad instrument, time of flight (CyTOF) instrument). The different ICP-MS based methods will be compared concerning their analytical figures of merit and their strengths and weaknesses will be evaluated. T2 - 16th Czech-Slovak Spectroscopic Conference CY - Luhacovice, Czech Republic DA - 27.05.2018 KW - Single cell analysis KW - ICP-MS KW - Nanoparticles PY - 2018 AN - OPUS4-45161 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Mrkwitschka, Paul A1 - Abram, Sarah-Luise A1 - Thünemann, Andreas A1 - Rühle, Bastian A1 - Radnik, Jörg A1 - Bresch, Harald A1 - Resch-Genger, Ute A1 - Hodoroaba, Vasile-Dan T1 - The Role of Electron Microscopy in the Development of Monodisperse Cubic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles as CRM for Size and Shape N2 - Due to their unique physico-chemical properties, nanoparticles are well established in research and industrial applications. A reliable characterization of their size, shape, and size distribution is not only mandatory to fully understand and exploit their potential and develop reproducible syntheses, but also to manage environmental and health risks related to their exposure and for regulatory requirements. To validate and standardize methods for the accurate and reliable particle size determination nanoscale reference materials (nanoRMs) are necessary. However, there is only a very small number of nanoRMs for particle size offered by key distributors such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Joint Research Centre (JRC) and, moreover, few provide certified values. In addition, these materials are currently restricted to polymers, silica, titanium dioxide, gold and silver, which have a spherical shape except for titania nanorods. To expand this list with other relevant nanomaterials of different shapes and elemental composition, that can be used for more than one sizing technique, we are currently building up a platform of novel nanoRMs relying on iron oxide nanoparticles of different shape, size and surface chemistry. Iron oxide was chosen as a core material because of its relevance for the material and life sciences. T2 - Microscopy and Microanalysis 2022 CY - Online meeting DA - 31.07.2022 KW - Certified Referencematerial KW - Cubical Iron Oxide KW - Nanoparticles KW - Electron Microscopy KW - Small-Angle X-ray Scattering PY - 2022 AN - OPUS4-57035 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Radnik, Jörg A1 - Knigge, Xenia A1 - Andresen, Elina A1 - Resch-Genger, Ute A1 - Cant, D.J.H. A1 - Shard, A.G. A1 - Clifford, C.A. T1 - Composition, thickness, and homogeneity of the coating of core–shell nanoparticles—possibilities, limits, and challenges of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy N2 - Core–shell nanoparticles have attracted much attention in recent years due to their unique properties and their increasing importance in many technological and consumer products. However, the chemistry of nanoparticles is still rarely investigated in comparison to their size and morphology. In this review, the possibilities, limits, and challenges of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) for obtaining more insights into the composition, thickness, and homogeneity of nanoparticle coatings are discussed with four examples: CdSe/CdS quantum dots with a thick coating and a small core; NaYF4-based upconverting nanoparticles with a large Yb-doped core and a thin Er-doped coating; and two types of polymer nanoparticles with a poly(tetrafluoroethylene) core with either a poly(methyl methacrylate) or polystyrene coating. Different approaches for calculating the thickness of the coating are presented, like a simple numerical modelling or a more complex simulation of the photoelectron peaks. Additionally, modelling of the XPS background for the investigation of coating is discussed. Furthermore, the new possibilities to measure with varying excitation energies or with hard-energy X-ray sources (hard-energy X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy) are described. A discussion about the sources of uncertainty for the determination of the thickness of the coating completes this review. KW - X-ray spectroscopy KW - Nanoparticles KW - Spectroscopy / Instrumentation KW - Spectroscopy / Theory PY - 2022 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-548305 DO - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-022-04057-9 VL - 414 IS - 15 SP - 4331 EP - 4345 PB - SpringerNature AN - OPUS4-54830 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Sötebier, Carina A1 - Bierkandt, Frank A1 - Bettmer, J. A1 - Rades, Steffi A1 - Jakubowski, Norbert A1 - Panne, Ulrich A1 - Weidner, Steffen T1 - Characterization of Ag nanoparticles: limitation and advantages of field-flow fractionation N2 - Silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) are widely used in consumer products due to their excellent antibacterial properties. Their broad application has led to a variety of recent regulation on their use and labelling. Thus, a highly specific analytical method for their characterization and quantification is needed. Due to their large separation range, field-flow fractionation (FFF) techniques are repeatedly applied for the analysis of NP. Limitations of FFF include quantification, sample loss and insufficient recovery rates. Another challenge can be non-ideal elution behavior of particles in complex and unknown matrices. The possible sources for sample losses of Ag NP have been studied using an asymmetric flow FFF (AF4) in combination with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The influence of different parameters, for example the sample concentration, on the recovery rates and sample loss has been investigated. Using laser ablation ICP-MS, the Ag deposition on the membrane was located and quantified. Our results identified ionic silver as the main sources of sample loss. These results can be useful for further method improvement. However, when a Ag NP sample containing an unknown complex matrix is analyzed, FFF method optimization is challenging as the sample might show a shift in the retention times and lower recovery rates. In this case, ICP-MS experiment in the single particle mode (sp-ICP-MS) can be a useful addition to the FFF measurement. Here, upon assumption of spherical particles, the geometric diameters can be calculated. This fast and easy approach can be helpful in order to interpret the FFF fractograms and advice the FFF method optimization process. T2 - 18th International Symposium on Field- and Flow-Based Separations CY - Dresden, Germany DA - 22.05.2016 KW - Silver KW - Nanoparticles KW - Field-flow fractionation KW - ICP-MS PY - 2016 AN - OPUS4-36352 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Jakubowski, Norbert A1 - Müller, L. A1 - Traub, Heike A1 - Panne, Ulrich A1 - Herrmann, Antje A1 - Kneipp, J. T1 - The quantitative elemental microscope: for what is it good for? N2 - Elemental imaging of biological samples using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) provides spatially resolved information on element distribution in thin sections. By rastering with a laser across the sample, a two-dimensional image of the elemental distribution can be reconstructed that shows the intensities of the respective elements. Using overlapping laser shots the area ablated from single cells or thin sections (thickness 5 to 10 µm) can be reduced significantly so that the pixel size of the intensity measurement is significantly reduced. Having in mind that a laser shot ablates thin biological samples completely, we can make use of a new concept for calibration in the laser ablation method: the concept of total consumption. This calibration strategy allows production of simple matrix matched standards and provides an internal standardisation by ink jet technology, where a metal containing inks is printed on as thin layer on top of a biological sample. Different applications will be presented where our concepts have been applied. In the first example we used nanoparticle suspension of given particle numbers to quantify the uptake of metallic nanoparticles by biological cells. In the second example antibodies have been tagged by metals to measure protein expression in prostata cancer. In this approach application of house keeping proteins are investigated additionally to compensate variations in thickness and density of the biopsy samples. In the third application different nephrotoxic behaviour of Pt containing drugs have been investigated to study the local enrichement in kidney samples of mice treated with these three different compounds. Here the internal standard is required to allow intercomparisons between different individual mouse tissues. At the end of the lecture future trends will be discussed for elemental microscopy. T2 - European Winter Conference on Plasma Spectrochemistry 2017 CY - Sankt Anton am Arlberg, Austria DA - 19.02.2017 KW - LA-ICP-MS KW - Bioimaging KW - Nanoparticles KW - Biomarker PY - 2017 AN - OPUS4-39267 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Jakubowski, Norbert A1 - Müller, L. A1 - Hösl, S. A1 - Traub, Heike A1 - Esteban-Fernández, D. A1 - Herrmann, Antje A1 - Panne, Ulrich T1 - Metal detection at cellular levels by use of laser ablation ICP-MS N2 - We are using laser ablation (LA)-ICP-MS to image the local distribution of elements (metals and hetero-elements) directly or (metallo-)proteins by metal-tagged antibodies in cells and tissue indirectly. Different applications will be discussed to demonstrate the state of the art and to visualize the elemental distribution pattern in soft bio-materials (tissue, single cells). In the first application Pt-containing drugs for cancer treatment are investigated and elemental distribution pattern are shown for tissue samples from animal experiments. Different standardization and quantification schemes including isotope dilution analysis will be discussed. In the second application, which is dedicated to toxicological research, the up-take of nano-particles by single cells are discussed and metal containing stains are used to visualize the distribution of nano-particles, proteins and DNA in a single cell simultaneously. This information is correlated with the distribution of the nanoparticles to identify the cell compartments where nano-particles are enriched. Quantification schemes have been developed to transform the measured intensities into number of particles up taken by the cells. In the third and last application LA-ICP-MS is applied to visualize the local distribution of proteins, which are used as bio-markers for prostate cancer. For this purpose, biopsy samples from patients have been simultaneously stained by eight differently metal-tagged antibodies in a multiplex approach. Detection of house-keeping proteins serves as internal standards to overcome differences in protein expression. Additionally ink-jet printing of metal doped inks onto the surface of these tissue samples has been applied for internal standardization and drift corrections. Finally future trends to develop an “elemental microscope” will be discussed. T2 - PITTCON 2017 CY - Chicago, IL, USA DA - 05.03.2017 KW - Element-microscopy KW - LA-ICP-MS KW - Nanoparticles KW - Immuno-assays PY - 2017 AN - OPUS4-39364 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Radnik, Jörg A1 - Benettoni, P. A1 - Stryhanyuk, H. A1 - Wagner, S. A1 - Hachenberger, Y. A1 - Jungnickel, H. A1 - Tentschert, J. T1 - Analytical and Characterisation Excellence in nanomaterial risk assessment: A tiered approach Task2.5 N2 - The final results of Task 2.5 "Optimization of sample preparation for characterization of ENPs using TOF-SIMS under real-life conditions (a.) UfZ: polymer template; b.) BAM: pressing of pellets)" were presented. T2 - ACEnano General Meeting CY - Amsterdam, The Netherlands DA - 05.03.2020 KW - Nanoparticles KW - ToF-SIMS KW - Preparation PY - 2020 AN - OPUS4-50572 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Jakubowski, Norbert A1 - Müller, L. A1 - Traub, Heike A1 - Esteban-Fernández, D. A1 - Panne, Ulrich A1 - Wanka, Antje A1 - Schellenberger, E. A1 - Theuring, F. A1 - Kneipp, J. T1 - Method development for metal detection at cellular levels N2 - An overview about different analytical approaches will be presented of how to detect metals in individual biological cells by use of ICP-MS. For this purpose, we are using different sample introduction systems for ICP-MS for detection, imaging and quantification of metals at cellular levels. By use of laser ablation, we have studied the up-take by and distribution of nanoparticles in single cells. Recently we have developed staining techniques to measure protein and DNA content of cells and identifying the cell status by immunoassays using metal-tagging of antibodies. New research based on cell arrays will be shortly discussed. Using pneumatic nebulization and microdroplet generation, we have also studied the up-take of nanoparticles and toxic metals as well as essential elements in single cells using different ICP-MS mass spectrometric concepts (sector field instrument, triple-quad instrument, time of flight (CyTOF) instrument). The different ICP-MS based methods will be compared concerning their analytical figures of merit and their strengths and weaknesses will be evaluated. T2 - Metallomics 2017 CY - Vienna, Austria DA - 14.08.2017 KW - Single cell analysis KW - Laser ablation KW - Nanoparticles KW - ICP-MS PY - 2017 AN - OPUS4-41690 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Heilmann, Maria A1 - Prinz, Carsten A1 - Bienert, Ralf A1 - Wendt, R. A1 - Kunkel, B. A1 - Radnik, Jörg A1 - Hoell, A. A1 - Wohlrab, S. A1 - de Oliveira Guilherme Buzanich, Ana A1 - Emmerling, Franziska T1 - Size-Tunable Ni–Cu Core–Shell Nanoparticles—Structure, Composition, and Catalytic Activity for the Reverse Water–Gas Shift Reaction N2 - A facile and efficient methodology is described for the solvothermal synthesis of size-tunable, stable, and uniform NiCu core–shell nanoparticles (NPs) for application in catalysis. The diameter of the NPs is tuned in a range from 6 nm to 30 nm and to adjust the Ni:Cu ratio from 30:1 to 1:1. Furthermore, the influence of different reaction parameters on the final NPs is studied. The NPs are structurally characterized by a method combination of transmission electron microscopy, anomalous small-angle X-ray scattering, X-ray absorption fine structure, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Using these analytical methods, it is possible to elucidate a core–shell–shell structure of all particles and their chemical composition. In all cases, a depletion from the core to the shell is observed, with the core consisting of NiCu alloy, surrounded by an inner Ni-rich shell and an outer NiO shell. The SiO2-supported NiCu core–shell NPs show pronounced selectivity of >99% for CO in the catalytic reduction of CO2 to CO using hydrogen as reactant (reverse water–gas shift reaction) independent of size and Ni:Cu ratio. KW - Nanoparticles KW - Core-shell KW - Catalysis PY - 2022 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-543606 DO - https://doi.org/10.1002/adem.202101308 SN - 1438-1656 SP - 1 EP - 13 PB - Wiley VCH AN - OPUS4-54360 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Hodoroaba, Vasile-Dan A1 - Rades, Steffi A1 - Oswald, F. A1 - Narbey, S. A1 - Radnik, Jörg T1 - Complementary methodical approach for the analysis of a perovskite solar cell layered system N2 - Loss in efficiency of perovskite solar cells may be caused by structural and/or chemical alterations of the complex layered system. As these changes might take place either in the bulk and/or on the surface of the stratified material, analytical tools addressing both key issues are selected and combined. SEM/EDX combined with XPS were chosen as appropriate methodical approach to characterise perovskite laboratory cells in depth and complementary on top, before and after light exposure. The layered perovskite system investigated here is based on glass covered with fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO), followed by three porous thin films of TiO2, ZrO2 and a thick monolithic carbon. The TiO2 film is subdivided into a dense layer covered by a porous one constituted of nanoparticles with a truncated bipyramidal shape. This layered system serves as the matrix for the perovskite. After infiltration of perovskite solution and annealing, EDX spectral maps on cross-sections of the specimen have been measured. The distribution of relevant elements – Si, Sn, Ti, Zr and C – correlates conclusively with layers visible in the acquired SEM images. Lead and iodine are distributed throughout the porous layers C, ZrO2 and TiO2. In a SEM micrograph taken of the cross-section of a sample after illumination, the glass substrate and all layers FTO, TiO2, ZrO2 as well as C are clearly identified. By EDX it was found that several weeks of ambient daylight did not change significantly the qualitative elemental composition of lead and iodine throughout the solar cell system. It was confirmed with EDX that nanoparticles identified in high-resolution SEM micrographs contain mainly Pb and I, indicating these to be the perovskite crystals. However, a time-dependent compositional and chemical altering was observed with XPS for the near-surface region of the outermost ~10 nm after two months of illumination. T2 - Microscopy & Microanalysis 2017 Meeting CY - St. Louis, MO, USA DA - 06.08.2017 KW - Thin films KW - EDX KW - XPS KW - SEM KW - Nanoparticles KW - Perovskite KW - TiO2 PY - 2017 AN - OPUS4-41664 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Sötebier, Carina A1 - Bierkandt, Frank A1 - Rades, Steffi A1 - Jakubowski, Norbert A1 - Panne, Ulrich A1 - Weidner, Steffen T1 - Sample loss in asymmetric flow field-flow fractionation coupled to inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry of silver nanoparticles N2 - In this work, sample losses of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) in asymmetrical flow field-flow fractionation (AF4) have been systematically investigated with the main focus on instrumental conditions like focusing and cross-flow parameters as well as sample concentration and buffer composition. Special attention was drawn to the AF4 membrane. For monitoring possible silver depositions on the membrane, imaging laser ablation coupled to inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) was used. Our results show that the sample residue on the membrane was below 0.6% of the total injected amount and therefore could be almost completely avoided at low sample concentrations and optimized conditions. By investigation of the AF4 flows using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), we found the recovery rate in the detector flow under optimized conditions to be nearly 90%, while the cross-flow, slot-outlet flow and purge flow showed negligible amounts of under 0.5%. The analysis of an aqueous ionic Ag standard solution resulted in recovery rates of over 6% and the ionic Ag content in the sample was found to be nearly 8%. Therefore, we were able to indicate the ionic Ag content as the most important source of sample loss in this study. KW - Asymmetric flow filed-flow fractionation KW - ICP-MS KW - Nanoparticles KW - Sample loss KW - Quantification PY - 2015 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-336171 DO - https://doi.org/10.1039/c5ja00297d SN - 0267-9477 SN - 1364-5544 VL - 30 IS - 10 SP - 2214 EP - 2222 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry CY - London AN - OPUS4-33617 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Unger, Wolfgang A1 - Müller, Anja A1 - Heinrich, Thomas A1 - Kunz, Valentin A1 - Nymark, P. A1 - Radnik, Jörg T1 - Chemical characterization of nanoparticles by PCA-assisted ToF-SIMS: a) Core-shell character, b) transformation and c) grouping studies N2 - This talk was given within the scope of the SIMS-22 conference in October 2019 in Kyoto (Japan). It deals with the surface analytical investigation of nanoparticles by PCS-assisted ToF-SIMS. This technique is applicable to core-shell nanoparticles, in order to distinguish a complete encapsulation from an incomplete encapsulation of the core by the shell material. Furthermore, the depletion process of organic nanoparticle coatings caused by UV-weathering is investigated. Finally, the significance of grouping studies for nanomaterials research and risk assessment is demonstrated. T2 - The 22nd International Conference on Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS-22) CY - Kyoto, Japan DA - 20.10.2019 KW - Nanoparticles KW - ToF-SIMS KW - Principal component analysis (PCA) PY - 2019 AN - OPUS4-50075 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - INPR A1 - Pauw, Brian Richard A1 - Smales, Glen Jacob A1 - Anker, A. S. A1 - Balazs, D. M. A1 - Beyer, F. L. A1 - Bienert, Ralf A1 - Bouwman, W. G. A1 - Breßler, Ingo A1 - Breternitz, J. A1 - Brok, E. S. A1 - Bryant, G. A1 - Clulow, A. J. A1 - Crater, E. R. A1 - De Geuser, F. A1 - Giudice, A. D. A1 - Deumer, J. A1 - Disch, S. A1 - Dutt, S. A1 - Frank, K. A1 - Fratini, E. A1 - Gilbert, E. P. A1 - Hahn, Marc Benjamin A1 - Hallett, J. A1 - Hohenschutz, Max A1 - Hollamby, M. J. A1 - Huband, S. A1 - Ilavsky, J. A1 - Jochum, J. K. A1 - Juelsholt, M. A1 - Mansel, B. W. A1 - Penttilä, P. A1 - Pittkowski, R. K. A1 - Portale, G. A1 - Pozzo, L. D. A1 - Ricardo de Abreu Furtado Garcia, P. A1 - Rochels, L. A1 - Rosalie, Julian M. A1 - Saloga, P. E. J. A1 - Seibt, S. A1 - Smith, A. J. A1 - Smith, G. N. A1 - Annadurai, V. A1 - Spiering, G. A. A1 - Stawski, Tomasz A1 - Taché, O. A1 - Thünemann, Andreas A1 - Toth, K. A1 - Whitten, A. E. A1 - Wuttke, J. T1 - The human factor - Results of a small-angle scattering data analysis round robin N2 - A Round Robin study has been carried out to estimate the impact of the human element in small-angle scattering data analysis. Four corrected datasets were provided to participants ready for analysis. All datasets were measured on samples containing spherical scatterers, with two datasets in dilute dispersions, and two from powders. Most of the 46 participants correctly identified the number of populations in the dilute dispersions, with half of the population mean entries within 1.5 % and half of the population width entries within 40 %, respectively. Due to the added complexity of the structure factor, much fewer people submitted answers on the powder datasets. For those that did, half of the entries for the means and widths were within 44 % and 86 % respectively. This Round Robin experiment highlights several causes for the discrepancies, for which solutions are proposed. KW - Round robin KW - Sall-angle scattering KW - Nanostructure quantification KW - Nanostructure KW - SAXS KW - MOUSE KW - X-ray scattering KW - Size distribution KW - Nanoparticles PY - 2023 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-571342 DO - https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2303.03772 SP - 1 EP - 23 PB - Cornell University CY - Ithaca, NY AN - OPUS4-57134 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Abad Andrade, Carlos Enrique A1 - Florek, S. A1 - Becker-Ross, H. A1 - Huang, M.-D. A1 - de Oliveira Guilherme Buzanich, Ana A1 - Radtke, Martin A1 - Lippitz, Andreas A1 - Hodoroaba, Vasile-Dan A1 - Schmid, Thomas A1 - Heinrich, Hans-Joachim A1 - Recknagel, Sebastian A1 - Jakubowski, Norbert A1 - Panne, Ulrich T1 - Zirconium permanent modifiers for graphite furnaces used in absorption spectrometry: understanding their structure and mechanism of action N2 - The mechanism of action of zirconium permanent modifiers on graphite surfaces was investigated in order to understand its influence on the analytical signal in atomic and molecular absorption spectrometry (AAS/MAS). For this, the molecule formation of CaF was studied, which is used for the indirect analytical determination of fluorine in high-resolution continuum source graphite furnace molecular absorption spectrometry (HR-CS-GFMAS). The kinetics of this reaction was established by monitoring its molecular spectrum at different atomisation temperatures. An Arrhenius plot showed a pseudo-first order reaction with respect to fluorine (n = 1). An intermediate state was isolated, and its structure was elucidated by spectroscopic methods: scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEMEDX), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XANES and EXAFS), and Raman microspectroscopy. We propose here a mechanism, where ZrO2 acts as a heterogeneous catalyst: after a pyrolytic step, an intermediate state of ZrO(OCaF) is activated, and at higher temperatures, CaF(g) is released from the zirconium-coated graphite surface. No evidence of the formation of zirconium carbide was found. Consequently, as the CaF formation is catalysed by a heterogeneous catalyst, surface modifications with ZrO2 nanoparticles and ZrO xerogels were investigated in order to increase the surface area. Their influence was evaluated in the molecule formation of CaF, CaCl, CaBr, and CaI. Graphite furnace modification with zirconium oxide nanoparticles proves to be the best choice for fluorine analysis with a signal enhancement of more than eleven times with respect a non-coated graphite furnace. However, the influence of zirconium modifications in the analytical signals of Cl, and I is lower than the F signals or even negative in case of the Br. Understanding zirconium modifiers as heterogeneous catalysts offers a new perspective to AAS and MAS, and reveals the potential of surface analytical methods for development of improved permanent modifiers and graphite furnace coatings. KW - Zirconium KW - HR-CS-MAS KW - Graphite furnace KW - Nanoparticles KW - Xerogel KW - Calcium monofluoride KW - Absorption spectrometry PY - 2018 UR - https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2018/ja/c8ja00190a DO - https://doi.org/10.1039/C8JA00190A SN - 0267-9477 VL - 33 IS - 12 SP - 2034 EP - 2042 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry AN - OPUS4-46775 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -