Abstract
A major requirement for the validation of methods assessing the risk associated with engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) is the use of reference materials (RMs). In the present contribution we review available RMs, ongoing projects and characterisation trends in the field. The conclusion is that actual approaches to RMs mostly deal with metrological considerations about single properties of the ENPs, typically their primary size, which can hardly be representative of nanoparticles characteristics in real testing media and therefore, not valid for reliable and comparable toxicological studies. As an alternative, we discussed the convenience and feasibility of establishing multi-parametric RMs for a series of ENPs, focusing on silica nanoparticles (SNPs). As a future perspective, the need to develop RMs based on hybrid nanoparticles is also discussed.
Highlights
Nanoparticles, objects with at least one dimension,100 nm, have always been present in nature, only after refining analytical techniques, e.g. electron microscopy, have they become ‘‘visible’’ to scientists.[1]
Due to the finding that the toxicity associated to nanoparticles depends on experimental conditions, an alternative approach to reference materials (RMs) would be the use of functionalised nanoparticles as proposed, for instance, by several authors from BAM and IUPAC.[42,43]
The validity of dynamic light scattering (DLS) to detect some degree of agglomeration can still be accepted.55,56 2.5 Priority engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) and their potentiality as multi-parametric RMs Stefaniak et al summarised the five lists of nano-objects which were identified as an object of interest by NIST, REFNANO, OECD, NanoImpactNet and Nanovalid.[40]
Summary
Objects with at least one dimension ,100 nm, have always been present in nature, only after refining analytical techniques, e.g. electron microscopy, have they become ‘‘visible’’ to scientists.[1] Simultaneous to the development of synthetic methods to produce engineered
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