ICP-MS: a promising tool in the detection and analysis of nanoparticles

In October 2011 the European Commission published its recommendation on a common definition of the term “nanomaterial” for regulatory purposes. According to this recommendation, a nanomaterial is a natural, incidental or manufactured material containing particles, in an unbound state or as an aggregate or as an agglomerate and where, for 50% or more of the particles in the number size distribution, one or more external diameters is in the size range 1 nm – 100 nm. In this definition, a particle, aggregate and agglomerate are defined as follows: 1) “particle” means a minute piece of matter with defined physical boundaries 2) “aggregate” means a particle comprising of strongly bound or fused particles 3) “agglomerate” means a collection of weakly bound particles or aggregates where the resulting external surface area is similar to the sum of the surface areas of the individual components