Nanomaterials for elemental speciation

Abstract

Various types of nanomaterials such as magnetic nanoparticles, carbon nanostructures, metal oxides, noble metal nanoparticles, and ion imprinted polymers have been incorporated in new innovative approaches for speciation analysis. Small size, high surface to volume ratio, and high chemical reactivity are the properties which make them ideal sorbents for selective separation of chemical species. Nanostructures based on different modifications of the nanoparticles and combinations between them additionally increased the nano-strategies employed for on-line or off-line determination of particular chemical species of elements. The presented review is focused on the use of nanomaterials for speciation analysis, analytical procedures developed and their application for analysis of environmental, food and biological samples. Critical view points on the current limitations and their future perspective are presented.