Nano- and microstructures play a fundamental role in basic biology and geology but are often neglected. In the past, one reason for this was a lack of suitable methods to provide complementary perspectives on integrated and discrete structures and to establish models on parameters such as sizes, masses, composition and number concentrations. Inductively coupled plasma – mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and its associated techniques initiated a paradigm shift for the investigation of micro- and nanostructures. In its single particle (SP) mode, it is capable to count individual particles rapidly whilst estimating critical particles features in a bottom-up fashion.

This presentation will review critical developments in the past, the current state-of-the-art and provide a future outlook. A focus is set on the analysis of samples with an environmental context and ways to carry out non-target particle screenings. In this context, both quadrupole as well as the time-of-flight (TOF) mass analyser is considered. A second focus is directed to the advancement of SP ICP-TOFMS and its complementation with other SP methods. We demonstrate the first hyphenation of SP ICP-TOFMS with an optical trap equipped with a SP Raman module, which can be used for both the elemental and molecular characterisation of individual particles.