• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.218-227
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• 2015

A prerequisite for precise quantification of nanomaterials contained in environmental samples is to prepare suitable preservation conditions of samples. This study was initiated to suggest preservation conditions of aqueous samples for analyses of metal nanomaterials. Variation in the size of silver nanomaterial (cit-AgNP) was observed according to change in various conditions, such as pH, electrolyte concentration, temperature, nanomaterial concentration, and time. Aggregation of AgNP was characterized for each environmental condition, and finally proper preservation conditions of samples were proposed based on experimental results on AgNP aggregation. In addition, the preservation period of sample was computed by the doublet time of AgNP. The results indicate that the aggregation rate of cit-AgNP was close to 0 at the conditions of pH of ${\geq}7$, electrolyte ($Ca(NO_3)_2$) concentration of ${\leq}3mM$, temperature of $4^{\circ}C$, and cit-AgNP concentration of ${\leq}2mg/L$. Furthermore, the experimental results on doublet time of cit-AgNP suggest that maximum preservation period was evaluated to be 15.79~17.53 days when the concentration of 100 nm cit-AgNP is assumed to be $1{\mu}g/L$ which is considered as an environmentally-relevant concentration of engineered nanomaterials. Our results suggest that samples should be preserved at $4^{\circ}C$ and analyzed within 2 weeks.