Asymmetric flow field-flow fractionation analysis of engineered nanoparticles in mouthwashes and their interaction with saliva

The evaluation of the oral uptake of engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) contained in personal care products like mouthwashes is of great relevance to estimate the potential hazards and the toxicity of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs). Various experiments were performed while two commercially available mouthwash products (named M1 and M2) were selected as samples of interest. Asymmetric flow field‑flow fractionation (AF4) was chosen and optimized as the particle separation technique and two detectors were on-line coupled while dynamic light scattering (DLS) was used for evaluation and signals obtained by ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) detection at 254 nm were used to gather additional information about the fate of the ENPs.