Chapter 2 - Methods for nanoparticle synthesis and drug delivery

Abstract

Nanoparticles (NPs) exist in different forms. Their unique physical and chemical properties originating mainly due to the quantization of electronic states and the high surface-to-volume ratio at the dimension below 100 nm. The potential application(s) of any class of nanomaterial confide on the physicochemical, structural and morphological characteristics, which in turn depends upon their origin as well as methods of synthesis. Basically, nanoparticles can either be derived from larger molecules in a ‘top-down approach’, or synthesized by ‘bottom-up’ approach. Top-down methods of nanoparticle synthesis are mostly physical in nature (milling, lithography etc.) which are easier to operate but suffer from poor control of the morphology, size and structure of the particles. On the other hand, the Bottom-up methods involve building up a material atom-by-atom, molecule-by-molecule, and cluster-by-cluster and are suitable for tailor-made design of nanoparticles for purpose-specific applications, such as drug-delivery.