Abstract
Silica nanoparticles display many unique physicochemical properties that make them desirable for use in a wide variety of consumer products and composite materials. Accurately measuring the size of these nanoparticles is important for achieving the desired nanoscale functionality of the final product and for regulatory compliances. This study covers the validation of a centrifugal liquid sedimentation method for accurate measurement of the Stokes diameter of silica particles with a near-spherical shape and dimensions in the nanometer and sub-nanometer scale range. The validated method provided unbiased results in the range of 50 nm to 200 nm, with a lower limit of detection of ≤20 nm. The relative standard uncertainties for precision, quantified in terms of repeatability and day-to-day variation, ranged from 0.2% to 1.0% and from <0.1% to 0.5%, respectively. The standard uncertainty for trueness was assessed at 4.6%. Within its working range, the method was found robust with respect to the type of cuvette, light factor, operator, and for defining the meniscus of the sample suspension. Finally, a relative expanded measurement uncertainty of 10% confirmed the satisfactory performance of the method.
Highlights
Nanoparticles and nanomaterials in general are at the leading edge of the rapidly developing field of nanotechnology
This paper presents the results of an in-house conducted validation study of a user-friendly, cost-efficient, and high-resolution cuvette-centrifugal liquid sedimentation (CLS) method developed for particle size analysis of monodisperse and bimodal samples of near-spherical silica particles with diameters in the range of 20 nm to 200 nm
For the ‘NS’-type materials, the particle size values are area-equivalent diameters determined by transmission electron microscopy
Summary
Nanoparticles and nanomaterials in general are at the leading edge of the rapidly developing field of nanotechnology. The small particle size confers them unique physical and chemical properties compared to their bulk counterparts. Along with the increased use of nanoparticles, concerns emerge about occupational exposure and potential adverse health effects [4,5]. In safeguarding public health and the environment in the European. Union (EU), horizontal and vertical legislation has been put in place [6,7,8]. This legislation is based on the European Commission’s Recommendation (2011/696/EU) on the definition of nanomaterial [9]. Mode and median diameter of a lognormal function fitted to the light extinction-weighted particle size distribution
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