Abstract
There is an increase in the usage of engineered metal oxide (TiO2 and ZnO) nanoparticles in commercial sunscreens due to their pleasing esthetics and greater sun protection efficiency. A number of studies have been done concerning the safety of nanoparticles in sunscreen products. In order to do the safety assessment, it is pertinent to develop novel analytical techniques to analyze these nanoparticles in commercial sunscreens. This study is focused on developing analytical techniques that can efficiently determine particle size of metal oxides present in the commercial sunscreens. To isolate the mineral UV filters from the organic matrices, specific procedures such as solvent extraction were identified. In addition, several solvents (hexane, chloroform, dichloromethane, and tetrahydrofuran) have been investigated. The solvent extraction using tetrahydrofuran worked well for all the samples investigated. The isolated nanoparticles were characterized by using several different techniques such as transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering, differential centrifugal sedimentation, and x-ray diffraction. Elemental analysis mapping studies were performed to obtain individual chemical and morphological identities of the nanoparticles. Results from the electron microscopy techniques were compared against the bulk particle sizing techniques. All of the sunscreen products tested in this study were found to contain nanosized (≤100 nm) metal oxide particles with varied shapes and aspect ratios, and four among the 11 products were showed to have anatase TiO2.
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Acknowledgements
This work was performed at the Nanotechnology Core Facility (NanoCore) located in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Jefferson Laboratories campus (Jefferson, Arkansas), which also houses the FDA National Center for Toxicological Research and the FDA Office of Regulatory Affairs, Arkansas Regional Laboratory. This project was graciously supported by the Nanotechnology CORES (Collaborative Opportunities for Research Excellence in Science) Program administered by the FDA Office of Chief Scientist, and supported in part by an appointment to the Research Participation Program at the Office of Regulatory Affairs/Arkansas Regional Laboratory, U.S. FDA, administered by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education through an interagency agreement between the U.S. Department of Energy and FDA. The authors would like to thank Williams Monroe and Yvonne Jones for providing support for elemental mapping studies and Thilak Mudalige, Patrick Sisco, and Dongryeoul Bae for providing valuable suggestions to improve the quality of the current article.
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The views expressed in this manuscript are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as the official opinion or policy of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Department of Health and Human Services or any other agency or component of the U.S. government. The mention of trades names, commercial products, or organizations is for clarification of the methods used and should not be interpreted as an endorsement of a product or manufacturer.
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Sunscreens applied to the vitro-skin substrate, FESEM images of sunscreens extracted using hexane and dichloromethane solvents along with description of some extraction procedures, Representative TEM image and EDS spectrum, FESEM and its corresponding elemental mapping images of the mineral filters, Particle size comparison with 3D graphs
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Bairi, V.G., Lim, JH., Fong, A. et al. Size characterization of metal oxide nanoparticles in commercial sunscreen products. J Nanopart Res 19, 256 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-017-3929-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-017-3929-0