Separation, Characterization, and Analysis of Environmental Nano- and Microparticles: State-of-the-Art Methods and Approaches

State-of-the-art approaches to the study of environmental natural and man-made nano- and microparticles are summarized. Separation methods (sedimentation, membrane filtration, field-flow fractionation), methods for assessing particle size and morphology (electron microscopy, dynamic and static light scattering), and also methods for their elemental analysis (inductively coupled plasma atomic emission and mass spectrometry, atomic absorption spectrometry, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy) are considered. Some particular examples of studies of natural particles of dust, volcanic ash, and natural waters, and also of synthetic nanoparticles of environment samples are presented. A necessity of using a complex of complementary methods of the separation, characterization, and analysis in the study of environmental particles is shown. Special attention is paid to hybrid methods ensuring the online separation, size evaluation, and analysis of particles. The main problems of the characterization and analysis of natural nanoparticles are formulated, and possible methods of their solution are proposed.