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Novel zone elution mode in coiled tube field-flow fractionation for online separation and characterization of environmental submicron particles

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Abstract

Coiled tube field-flow fractionation (CTFFF) is currently applied to environmental and material studies. In the present work, a novel zone elution mode in CTFFF has been proposed and developed. Zone elution mode is based on the separation of particles by stepwise decreasing the flow rate of the carrier fluid and their subsequent elution at a constant flow rate. The fractionation parameters were optimized using a mixture of standard silica submicron particles (150, 390, and 900 nm). Taking samples of volcanic ash as examples, it has been demonstrated that zone elution mode can be successfully used for the fractionation of environmental nano- and submicron particles. For the first time, CTFFF was coupled online with a dynamic light scattering detector for the size characterization of eluted particles. Zone elution in CTFFF can serve for the further development of hyphenated techniques enabling efficient fractionation and size/elemental characterization of environmental particles in nano- and submicrometric size ranges.

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Acknowledgements

The study corresponds to the research plan of the Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The authors are indebted to Dr. Olesya N. Katasonova for SEM analysis.

Funding

The work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation, project n. 22-13-00316 (fractionation and characterization of volcanic ash), and the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, project n. 20-03-00274 (development of a new fractionation mode using standard samples).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Nanoparticle Geochemistry, Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, 119991, Russia

    Alexandr I. Ivaneev, Mikhail S. Ermolin & Petr S. Fedotov

  2. Université de Pau et des Pays de l‘Adour (UPPA-E2S), Institut des Sciences Analytiques et de Physico-Chimie pour l’Environnement et les matériaux (IPREM), UMR 5254 UPPA/CNRS, 64053, Pau, France

    Valentin De Carsalade Du Pont & Gaёtane Lespes

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Ivaneev, A.I., Ermolin, M.S., Fedotov, P.S. et al. Novel zone elution mode in coiled tube field-flow fractionation for online separation and characterization of environmental submicron particles. Anal Bioanal Chem 415, 6363–6373 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-023-04913-2

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