Amir Shafiee Kisomi - Applied Geological Research Center of Geological Survey of Iran
Somayeh Veyseh - Applied Geological Research Center of Geological Survey of Iran

Engineered Ag nanoparticles can enter soils, sediments and other geological samples throughvarious sources and pathways such as the application of fertilizers and plant protection products,biosolids, the irrigation of sewage water or the flooding of floodplains [1]. According to a materialflow analysis from a life-cycle perspective of engineered nanoparticles-containing products, anincreasing soil exposure to Ag nanoparticles has to be expected [2]. Silver nanoparticles areconsidered to have a cumulative impact on environmental and human health [3]. Nowadays, there aredifferent techniques used for Ag nanoparticles determination in geological samples as reviewedelsewhere [3]. Most of them are expensive, time consumption and low throughput. In current study, anefficient sensitive, and quick Ag nanoparticle analysis was accomplished by using microwave-assistedacid digestion followed by Inductively Coupled Plasma – Mass Spectroscopy (ICP-MS). The digestiontechnique requires short times to completion and optimally requires only 0.1 g of sample.This method was optimized in soil and sediments in terms of recovery, repeatability, limit ofdetection and linear dynamic range. A detection limit of 0.6 ng mL-1 was obtained for Agnanoparticles after Microwave assisted acid digestion, and a wide linear range of 2.0 - 1000 ng mL-1with the relative standard deviation (RSD) was 3.4%. The method was successfully applied to soil andsediment samples.

Microwave assisted acid digestion, Engineered Ag nanoparticles, ICP-MS, Soil, Sediment