Particle Size Measurement and Detection of Bound Proteins of Non-Porous/Mesoporous Silica Microspheres by Single-Particle Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry

Single-particle inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (spICP-MS) has been used for particle size measurement of diverse types of individual nanoparticles and micrometer-sized carbon-based particles such as microplastics. However, its applicability to the measurement of micrometer-sized non-carbon-based particles such as silica (SiO₂) particles is unclear. In this study, the applicability of spICP-MS to particle size measurement of non-porous/mesoporous SiO₂ microspheres with a nominal diameter of 5.0 µm or smaller was investigated. Particle sizes of these microspheres were measured using both spICP-MS based on a conventional calibration approach using an ion standard solution and scanning electron microscopy as a reference technique, and the results were compared. The particle size distributions obtained using both techniques were in agreement within analytical uncertainty. The applicability of this technique to the detection of metal-containing protein-binding mesoporous SiO₂ microspheres was also investigated. Bound iron (Fe)-containing proteins (i.e., lactoferrin and transferrin) of mesoporous SiO₂ microspheres were detected using Fe as a presence marker for the proteins. Thus, spICP-MS is applicable to the particle size measurement of large-sized and non-porous/mesoporous SiO₂ microspheres. It has considerable potential for element-based detection and qualification of bound proteins of mesoporous SiO₂ microspheres in a variety of applications.