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	What are nanoparticles?
	What is nanotechnology?
	Nanoparticle size measurement techniques
	The Zetasizer Nano and nanoparticles

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Metal nanoparticles

Metal nanoparticles - Using the Zetasizer for particle size measurement

The most commonly used metal nanoparticles are Silver, Gold and Palladium. Their interesting properties and characteristics are due to their small size, generally 10’s of nanometres or less.

The Zetasizer from Malvern Instruments provides a simple, rapid and highly accurate method of measuring the size of these particles using dynamic light scattering.

To measure just:

Transfer the sample as it is to a cuvette
Run a standard method provided, which will take about 2 minutes
Read and print the result

Figure 1: Gold Nanoparticles showing the change in optical properties as a function of size. From our Application Note: Characterization of colloidal gold using DLS (Free login required to view).

Gold nanoparticles bound to antibodies are used for medical applications. The gold particles migrate to the site where the antibodies interact within the body, and can then be readily imaged.

Silver nanoparticles are one of the fastest growing categories of metal nanoparticles. Their antibacterial properties mean they are finding their way into wound dressings, textiles, washing machines, food containers and soaps.

Palladium nanoparticles are mainly used as the active ingredient in fuel catalysts, but are also used as catalysts in fuel cells, and in an alloy with gold to produce hydrogen peroxide more economically than traditional means.

Examples of the use of metal nanoparticles:

Property	Application

Optical	Anti-reflection coatings. Tailored refractive index of surfaces.

Electronic	High performance and smaller component fabrication Dopants for LCD displays to increase performance such as speed Super high density recording media

Energy	High energy density and more durable batteries. Hydrogen storage applications using metal nanoclusters. Electrocatalysts for high efficiency fuel cells. Renewable energy, ultra high performance solar cells.

Biomedical	Antibacterial silver coatings on wound dressings. Sensors for disease detection, bound with antibodies or sugars Enhanced radiotherapy Pain relief in joints Programmed release drug delivery systems.

Environmental	Treatment of industrial emissions. More efficient and effective water filtration.


	Download nanoparticle articles and application notes (requires FREE registration):

	Application Note: Measurement of Nanometer Scale Cadmium Selenide Nanocrystals and Cluster-Molecules. High performance Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) has been used to determine the hydrodynamic diameters of CdSe nanocrystals as well as CdSe cluster molecules in a size range of 1 to 10nm. The method enables the determination of their particle size, including their ligand shells, in solution. DLS gave comparable results for the size of both types of compound, indicating that it is potentially an important additional measurement technique to TEM, which uses harsh measurement conditions, and powder X-ray diffraction, which is difficult to interpret below 5nm.


	Publication: Sizing Up Nanotechnology (Published in American Laboratory News Feb 2004). Nanoscale science is one of the most dynamic fields of research today, and it requires equally innovative and appropriate analytical and preparative techniques. The DLS technology described here is available either on its own or combined in a single system with zeta potential and molecular weight measurement - key parameters in characterizing nanosize particles and molecules.