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Feasibility of the development of reference materials for the detection of Ag nanoparticles in food: neat dispersions and spiked chicken meat

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Abstract

The feasibility of producing colloidal silver nanoparticle reference materials and silver nanoparticle spiked reference matrix materials was investigated. Two concentrations of PVP-coated silver nanoparticle dispersions were evaluated and used to spike chicken meat, with the aim of producing a set of reference materials to support the development of analytical methods for the detection and quantification of nanoparticles in food. Aqueous silver nanoparticle (AgNP) dispersions were evaluated for their homogeneity of mass fraction and particle size and found sufficiently homogeneous to be used as reference materials. Stability studies at 4 °C, 18 °C and 60 °C demonstrated sufficient short- and long-term stability, although particle size decreases in a linear fashion at 60 °C. The AgNP dispersions were characterized for total Ag mass fraction by ICP-OES, dissolved Ag content by ultrafiltration-ICP-MS, as well as AgNP particle size by dynamic light scattering, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and gas-phase electrophoretic molecular mobility analysis. Chicken breasts were homogenized by cryo-milling and spiked with aqueous AgNP dispersions. Rapid freezing over liquid nitrogen resulted in homogeneous and stable materials. The spiked chicken materials were characterized for their total Ag mass fraction by neutron activation analysis and for the AgNP particle size by TEM and single-particle inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The observed differences in particle sizes between the spiked chicken samples and the original silver dispersions indicate relevant matrix effects. The materials demonstrate that production and characterization of reference materials for the detection and quantification of silver nanoparticles in meat are feasible, but challenges especially in assessing stability and having sufficiently precise methods for assessment of homogeneity and stability remain.

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Acknowledgments

The work leading to these results has received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) under grant agreement no 245162. The authors thank Mrs. Meeus (EC JRC-IRMM) for conducting the microbiology tests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements (IRMM), Retieseweg 111, 2440, Geel, Belgium

    Ringo Grombe, Jean Charoud-Got, Håkan Emteborg, John Seghers & Thomas P. J. Linsinger

  2. Institute of Chemical Technologies and Analytics, Research Group Bio- and Polymer Analysis, Vienna University of Technology, Getreidemarkt 9/164-IAC, 1060, Vienna, Austria

    Günter Allmaier & Angela Lehner

  3. The Food and Environment Research Agency, Sand Hutton York, YO41 1LZ, UK

    Agnieszka Dudkiewicz

  4. Environment Department, The University of York, Heslington, York, YO10 5DD, UK

    Agnieszka Dudkiewicz

  5. Department of Environmental Geosciences, University of Vienna, Althanstrasse 14, 1090, Vienna, Austria

    Thilo Hofmann, Frank von der Kammer & Stephan Wagner

  6. National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark, 19, Mørkhøj Bygade, 2860, Søborg, Denmark

    Erik Huusfeldt Larsen & Katrin Loeschner

  7. Institute of Advanced Chemistry of Catalonia, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (IQAC-CSIC), Institute of Advanced Chemistry and Centro de Investigaciones Biomédica en Red en Bioingeniería, Biomateriales y Nanomedicina (CIBER-BBN), Barcelona, Spain

    Meritxell Llinàs & Conxita Solans

  8. DTU Nanotech, Technical University of Denmark, DTU Bldg 345b, 2800, Lyngby, Denmark

    Kristian Mølhave

  9. RIKILT – Institute of Food Safety, Wageningen UR, Akkermaalsbos 2, P.O. Box 230, 6700 AE, Wageningen, The Netherland

    Ruud J. Peters & Stefan Weigel

Authors
  1. Ringo Grombe
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  2. Günter Allmaier
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  3. Jean Charoud-Got
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  4. Agnieszka Dudkiewicz
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  5. Håkan Emteborg
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  6. Thilo Hofmann
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  7. Erik Huusfeldt Larsen
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  8. Angela Lehner
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  9. Meritxell Llinàs
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  10. Katrin Loeschner
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  11. Kristian Mølhave
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  12. Ruud J. Peters
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  13. John Seghers
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  14. Conxita Solans
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  15. Frank von der Kammer
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  16. Stephan Wagner
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  17. Stefan Weigel
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  18. Thomas P. J. Linsinger
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Thomas P. J. Linsinger.

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Grombe, R., Allmaier, G., Charoud-Got, J. et al. Feasibility of the development of reference materials for the detection of Ag nanoparticles in food: neat dispersions and spiked chicken meat. Accred Qual Assur 20, 3–16 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00769-014-1100-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00769-014-1100-5

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