Nanoparticle characterisation for ecotoxicological studies using imaging and non-imaging based tools

Abstract

There is a great deal of concern about the safety of nanoparticles and their effect on the environment; this has led to a recent Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) drive for testing the toxicity of industrially relevant nanomaterials. A fundamental aspect of the research is the need to measure particle size and particle concentration accurately and reliably, as these two parameters will infl uence toxicity. The current paper presents a study that aims to characterise CeO 2 nanoparticles for the purpose of ecotoxicological studies, and this has resulted in a two-part study that is presented in this paper. The aim of the fi rst part of the study was to observe if small nanosized clusters ( 0.1 mg/L, as NTA tracks individual particles and does not suffer limitations observed with DLS, in which larger particles can potentially mask signal of smaller particles and (c) calibration curve for number concentration by NTA did not yield a linear response; the non-linear response observed should be further investigated if NTA is going to be used to measure particle number concentration, particularly in the low concentration range.