Open Access

Understanding the potential human health risks associated with micro- and nanoplastic exposure is currently a priority research area. Nanoplastic toxicity studies are complicated by the lack of available, well-characterized test and reference materials. Further, many nanoplastic test materials are inherently more polydisperse and heterogenous in shape compared to polystyrene beads, making accurate and representative size distribution measurements particularly challenging. The aim of this study was to conduct an inter-laboratory comparison of dynamic light scattering measurements, the most commonly used particle sizing method for nanomaterials. Using a published standard operating procedure, size measurements in water and a standardized cell culture medium (CCM) were generated for spherical, carboxy-functionalized polystyrene nanoparticles (PS-COOH; 50 nm; benchmark material), and for increasingly complex in-house produced spherical poly(ethylene terephthalate) (nanoPET) and irregular shaped polypropylene (nanoPP) test materials. The weighted mean of hydrodynamic diameters of PS-COOH dispersed in water (55 ± 5 nm) showed moderate variation between labs (coefficient of variation, CV = 8.2%) and were similar to literature reports. Measurements of nanoPET (82 ± 6 nm) and nanoPP (182 ± 12 nm) in water exhibited similar CV values (nanoPET: 7.3% and nanoPP; 6.8%). Dispersion of PS-COOH and nanoPET in CCM increased the CV to 15.1 and 14.2%, respectively, which is lower than literature reports (CV = 30%). We conclude with a series of practical recommendations for robust size measurements of nanoplastics in both water and complex media highlighting that strict adherence to a standard operating procedure is required to prevent particle agglomeration in CCM

This Perspective covers discovery and mechanistic aspects aswell as initial applications of novel ionization processes for use in massspectrometry that guided us in a series of subsequent discoveries, instrumentdevelopments, and commercialization. Vacuum matrix-assisted ionization onan intermediate pressure matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization sourcewithout the use of a laser, high voltages, or any other added energy wassimply unbelievable, at first. Individually and as a whole, the variousdiscoveries and inventions started to paint, inter alia, an exciting new pictureand outlook in mass spectrometry from which key developments grew thatwere at the time unimaginable, and continue to surprise us in its simplisticpreeminence. We, and others, have demonstrated exceptional analyticalutility. Our current research is focused on how best to understand, improve, and use these novel ionization processes throughdedicated platforms and source developments. These ionization processes convert volatile and nonvolatile compounds from solid orliquid matrixes into gas-phase ions for analysis by mass spectrometry using, e.g., mass-selected fragmentation and ion mobilityspectrometry to provide accurate, and sometimes improved, mass and drift time resolution. The combination of research anddiscoveries demonstrated multiple advantages of the new ionization processes and established the basis of the successes that lead tothe Biemann Medal and this Perspective. How the new ionization processes relate to traditional ionization is also presented, as wellas how these technologies can be utilized in tandem through instrument modification and implementation to increase coverage ofcomplex materials through complementary strengths.

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%. Due to the added complexity of the structure factor, far 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.