Detection of PTFE Microparticles by ICP-qMS Operated in Single-Particle Mode

FAINA Gelman, Geological Survey Of Israel, Jerusalem, Israel (FAINA@GSI.GOV.IL)
Magdalena Muszynska, Pro-environment Polska, Warsaw, Poland
Jakub Karasinski, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland>
Ludwik Halicz, Geological Survey of Israel, Jerusalem, Israel
Ovadia Lev, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

In recent decades, environmental contamination with plastics has become a major cause of concern. Plastic waste that enters the environment can break down into microplastic.  It has been suggested that microplastics, in particular those at lower micron and sub-micron sizes, have a potentially higher capacity to be injected, transferred into the food web, and adversely affect humans and ecosystems. One of the significant classes of microplastics is fluoropolymers, which are widely used in various consumer products, and draw increasing attention due to the potential contribution to the widespread of perfluoroalkyl substances, PFAS, an emerging class of refractory organic contaminants. 

In this study, we demonstrate  the feasibility of the selective detection of PTFE microparticles by ICP-qMS equipped with O₂ dynamic reaction cell (DRC) and operated in single-particle mode. Our analytical method is based on the earlier proposed approach for fluorine detection by ICP-MS/MS through the formation of BaF⁺ ions (m/z 157) in the plasma. Using microseconds dwell time the single-particle BaF⁺ spikes with signal intensities significantly higher than the background were detected in the samples containing PTFE microparticles. Under the applied operating parameters, PTFE particles larger than 0.93 µm can be detected. The limit of detection of 8.5 x 10⁵ particles L^-1 was achieved for an acquisition time of 100 seconds.  The most frequent particle diameter of 1.2 ± 0.1 µm determined by SP-ICP-MS analysis is consistent with the average diameter of 1.2 ± 0.2 µm, detected by DLS.  

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Short Biography of Presenting Author

Dr. Faina Gelman is a senior researcher at the Geological Survey of Israel. She received her PhD degree in chemistry and spent two years as a post-doc associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her current research interests include investigating the fate of persistent environmental pollutants and the development of novel analytical tools for environmental analysis.