Evaluation of elemental impurities and particle size distribution in nanomedicine using asymmetric flow field-flow fractionation hyphenated to inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry.

Nanomedicines, which consist of nanoparticles as active ingredients, have been developed and approved for pharmaceutical use. However, no method has been established to quantify ions and nanoparticles containing the same elements separately. We developed an asymmetric flow field-flow fractionation hyphenated to inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (AF4-ICP-MS) to assess elemental impurities from ions and nanoparticles of different sizes.