Figure 8.

Comparison of the IBM and ToF-SIMS lateral distributions for selected signals side-by-side in the ZrO₂ NP containing lung section of Figure 5. The IBM distributions (a–c) were tilted to enable a direct comparison to the ToF-SIMS images (d–f, magnified). All distributions show a reasonably high congruency. The central, intense area of the S and P distribution from the IBM results has no direct equivalent in the ToF-SIMS results (interpreted as an artifact, see text). However, an area of similar size and shape is found in the lower left of the alveolar structure in the SO₂⁺ and PO⁺ ToF-SIMS images (blue arrows). The border of the field-of-view of the IBM is indicated by a dashed line in (c).