Application of Mass Spectrometry in Component and Particle Size Analysis of Nanomaterials

Particle size and chemical composition are the basic parameters of nanomaterials. The nanoscale size endows nanomaterials with special properties different from bulk materials, such as surface and interface effect, small size effect, quantum size effect, macroscopic quantum tunneling effect and dielectric confinement effect. The type and content of chemical components determine the chemical properties of nanomaterials, such as chemical activity, catalytic selectivity, adsorption selectivity and biological affinity. To a large extent, particle size and chemical composition determine the application of nanomaterials in energy, electronics, environment, sensing, biomedicine and other fields. Therefore, the particle size and composition analysis of nanomaterials are of great significance for the optimization and application of their preparation process. Mass spectrometry is one of the main analytical techniques, which is used to detect the mass, elemental composition and chemical structure of particles or molecules, and it can analyze almost all types and forms of materials, with the characteristics of high analysis accuracy and high detection sensitivity. It has been more widely applied in nano-coating thickness analysis, nanomaterials composition analysis, trace impurity analysis and composition distribution analysis. In some recent research studies, mass spectrometry has also been used to analyze the number concentration, particle size and particle size distribution of nanoparticles, demonstrating its potential for particle size measurements in suspensions over a large size range. In this paper, the advances in studies on mass spectrometry in the analysis of the composition and particle size of nanomaterials were reviewed. The basic principles, advantages and disadvantages, range of application and application cases of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, glow discharge mass spectrometry, secondary ion mass spectrometry and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry techniques applicable to the analysis of nanomaterials were introduced, demonstrating the potential of mass spectrometry in the characterization of nanomaterials. Finally, this paper summarized the challenges faced by mass spectrometry analysis technology in environmental interference, size characterization of particles with complex morphology, spatial resolution of components and insitu analysis. The strategies to overcome the above problems by designing special instruments for characterization of nanomaterials and combining with other separation and detection techniques were proposed, trying to provide some reference for the development of mass spectrometry characterization techniques of nanomaterials.