Nanoparticles Size Distribution Assessment During Early Synthesis Stages

Dan Chicea,Oleksandr Doroshkevych,Miroslaw Kulik,Akhmed Islamov,Alexandra Nicolae,Mirela Maria Codescu,N.F Cofaru,M Inţă

doi:10.1051/matecconf/202134301005

Dan Chicea, Oleksandr Doroshkevych + Show 6 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/202134301005

Copy DOI

Abstract

Nanotechnology, an innovative field of material science, designs and produces nanostructures materials with unique properties that make them suited for various bioengineering applications. The shape and the dimension are the main variables depending on the method of synthesis or chemical precursors. Silver nanoparticles obtained through chemical synthesis exhibit as strong antibacterial effect if their size lays in a well-defined range. However, a small size of such particles, in the range of nanometers to several tens of nanometers, requires specific techniques as Dynamic Light Scattering or Transmission Electron Microscopy, both being affected by certain assumptions or by the high cost and long time required for a measurement. A nonconventional method based on Direct Particle Tracking can be used to produce the particle size distribution in the early nanoparticle synthesis stages. The work presents a realistic computer simulation of nanoparticle diffusion performed with the CHODIN code and a size distribution assessment using a code for Direct Particle Tracking written for this purpose. The results are consistent with the particle size used for simulation and states as a proof of concept for using the Direct Particle Tracking method for particle size distribution in the early stages of nanoparticle synthesis.

Highlights

Nanotechnology, the science of low-dimensional structures, is categorized as a branch of multidisciplinary sciences, such as physics or chemistry, studied at atomic and molecular level
The results of the computer simulation presented here proved both that the Direct Particle Tracking (DPT) method is valid and that the software written for DPT data analysis works well
As compared with the DLS procedure [24,25,26], DPT is slower and requires more experimental and computational effort, especially when we compare it with the novel Artificial Neural Network assisted DLS procedure [27,28,29], but presents the advantage of providing the particle size distribution, instead of the average size

Summary

Introduction

Nanotechnology, the science of low-dimensional structures, is categorized as a branch of multidisciplinary sciences, such as physics or chemistry, studied at atomic and molecular level. A real-time analysis technique of such nanoparticles in liquid media can even show the dynamic process in which nano and micro-particles interact with cells by scattering the diffused light using an optical system. Another important process that can be visualized using DPT is aggregation. Mathematical simulations for DPT technique will determine the dispersity of these diffused nanoparticles in liquid suspensions by obtaining individual trajectory for particles and the specific diffusion time. Such information will be addressed in the synthesis step of experiments. The functionalization process is strongly practiced for silver or magnetite nanoparticles, so data about the change in diffusion time can be fundamental for the final application

Direct particle tracking – theoretical considerations

Brownian motion simulation

Results and discussions

Conclusions