Concentration determination of gold nanoparticles by flame atomic absorption spectrophotometry

While engineered nanoparticles are widely used and maybe eventually released into the environment,natural nanoparticles are also commonly found in the Earth system.Nanoparticles may critically affect the geochemical migration of associated elements and pose potential threats to the ecological environment.It is necessary to establish an accurate and reliable method for measuring the concentration of nanoparticles.AAS is one of the most commonly used methods for the concentration determination of nanoparticles.However,till now,there has been no systematic report on how experimental variables affect AAS measurements.In this study,we used gold nanoparticles(AuNPs) as an example and studied the influences of a list of factors on the concentration determination of AuNPs by AAS,including digestion method,ionization interference,acidic medium,background correction method,and organic matter.We demonstrate that all these factors may have varying degrees of influence on the measured gold concentrations.When the gold colloid is digested at room temperature for more than 8 h or at 60℃ for more than 2 h,and the system contains a low concentration of organic matter,AAS can accurately measure the AuNP concentration at ppm-level.The deuterium lamp background deduction method is not recommended to use for samples with lower gold concentrations.