Characterization of the Silver Species Released From Clothing by Single Particle–Inductively Coupled Plasma–Mass Spectrometry Using a Microsecond Dwell Time

Abstract

In this study the silver species were identified that leached into artificial sweat from commercially available clothing products that were in direct contact with skin. Single particle-inductively coupled plasma mass-spectrometry (SP-ICP-MS) is capable of simultaneously determining silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and dissolved silver (Ag⁺), especially when dwell time is used in microsecond range. The effect of Ag⁺ concentration for the determination of 40 and 70 nm AgNPs was investigated and AgNPs were characterized accurately up to 2 ng mL⁻¹ and 15 ng mL⁻¹ Ag⁺, respectively. Under the optimized conditions, the limit of detection for nanoparticle number concentration (LOD_conc) and the limit of detection for nanoparticle size (LOD_size) of the proposed SP-ICP-MS method were 5.5 × 10² particle mL⁻¹ and 17 nm, respectively. According to the results, silver was present in artificial sweat solution in the dissolved form, which was confirmed by a spectrofluorometric assay and ultracentrifugation. In addition, the released quantity of silver from underwear was higher than from socks, which may be related to the differences in the textiles and their manufacturing processes.

Keywords:

• Silver nanoparticles
• dissolved silver
• single particle-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (SP-ICP-MS)
• artificial sweat

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by Gazi University Scientific Research Fund (grant number: 02/2017-09).