Dispersion and Aggregation Fate of Individual and Co-Existing Metal Nanoparticles under Environmental Aqueous Suspension Conditions

The use of diverse metal nanoparticles (MNPs) in a wide range of commercial products has led to their co-existence in the aqueous environment. The current study explores the dispersion and aggregation fate of five prominent MNPs (silver, copper, iron, nickel, and titanium), in both their individual and co-existing forms. We address a knowledge gap regarding their environmental fate under turbulent condition akin to flowing rivers. We present tandem analytical techniques based on dynamic light scattering, ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, and inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy for discerning their dispersion behavior under residence times of turbulence, ranging from 0.25 to 4 h. The MNPs displayed a multimodal trend for dispersion and aggregation behavior with suspension time in aqueous samples. The extent of dispersion was variable and depended upon intrinsic properties of MNPs. However, the co-existing MNPs displayed a dominant hetero-aggregation effect, independent of the residence times. Further research with use of real-world environmental samples can provide additional insights on the effects of sample chemistry on MNPs fate.

High Resolution Powder Electron Diffraction in Scanning Electron Microscopy

A modern scanning electron microscope equipped with a pixelated detector of transmitted electrons can record a four-dimensional (4D) dataset containing a two-dimensional (2D) array of 2D nanobeam electron diffraction patterns; this is known as a four-dimensional scanning transmission electron microscopy (4D-STEM). In this work, we introduce a new version of our method called 4D-STEM/PNBD (powder nanobeam diffraction), which yields high-resolution powder diffractograms, whose quality is fully comparable to standard TEM/SAED (selected-area electron diffraction) patterns. Our method converts a complex 4D-STEM dataset measured on a nanocrystalline material to a single 2D powder electron diffractogram, which is easy to process with standard software. The original version of 4D-STEM/PNBD method, which suffered from low resolution, was improved in three important areas: (i) an optimized data collection protocol enables the experimental determination of the point spread function (PSF) of the primary electron beam, (ii) an improved data processing combines an entropy-based filtering of the whole dataset with a PSF-deconvolution of the individual 2D diffractograms and (iii) completely re-written software automates all calculations and requires just a minimal user input. The new method was applied to Au, TbF₃ and TiO₂ nanocrystals and the resolution of the 4D-STEM/PNBD diffractograms was even slightly better than that of TEM/SAED.

Powder Nano-Beam Diffraction in Scanning Electron Microscope: Fast and Simple Method for Analysis of Nanoparticle Crystal Structure

We introduce a novel scanning electron microscopy (SEM) method which yields powder electron diffraction patterns. The only requirement is that the SEM microscope must be equipped with a pixelated detector of transmitted electrons. The pixelated detectors for SEM have been commercialized recently. They can be used routinely to collect a high number of electron diffraction patterns from individual nanocrystals and/or locations (this is called four-dimensional scanning transmission electron microscopy (4D-STEM), as we obtain two-dimensional (2D) information for each pixel of the 2D scanning array). Nevertheless, the individual 4D-STEM diffractograms are difficult to analyze due to the random orientation of nanocrystalline material. In our method, all individual diffractograms (showing randomly oriented diffraction spots from a few nanocrystals) are combined into one composite diffraction pattern (showing diffraction rings typical of polycrystalline/powder materials). The final powder diffraction pattern can be analyzed by means of standard programs for TEM/SAED (Selected-Area Electron Diffraction). We called our new method 4D-STEM/PNBD (Powder NanoBeam Diffraction) and applied it to three different systems: Au nano-islands (well diffracting nanocrystals with size ~20 nm), small TbF3 nanocrystals (size < 5 nm), and large NaYF4 nanocrystals (size > 100 nm). In all three cases, the STEM/PNBD results were comparable to those obtained from TEM/SAED. Therefore, the 4D-STEM/PNBD method enables fast and simple analysis of nanocrystalline materials, which opens quite new possibilities in the field of SEM.

Evaluation of Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis for the Detection of Rod-Shaped Particles and Protein Aggregates

Nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA) is an important technique for measuring hydrodynamic size of globular biological particles including liposomes and viruses. Less attention has been paid to NTA of rod-like particles, despite their considerable interest. For example, amyloid fibrils and protofibrils are protein aggregates with rod-like morphology, diameters of 2-15 nm, and lengths from 50 nm to 1 μm, and linked to diseases including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. We used NTA to measure the concentration and hydrodynamic size of gold nanorods (10 nm diameter, 35-250 nm length) and myosin (2 nm diameter, 160 nm length), as models of rod-like particles. Measured hydrodynamic diameters of gold nanorods were consistent with theoretical calculations, as long as particle concentration and solution conditions were controlled. Myosin monomers were invisible by NTA, but a small population of aggregates was detected. We combined NTA results with other light scattering data to gain insight into number and size distribution of protein solutions containing both monomer and aggregates. Finally, we demonstrated the utility of NTA and its limitations by characterizing aggregates of alpha-synuclein. Of note is the use of NTA to detect a change in morphology from compact to elongated by analyzing the ratio of hydrodynamic size to intensity.