Characterization

Question 1

Why is it important to characterize the physicochemical properties of nanomaterials?

Answer 1

Determine that we have what we think we have, know what we have - Correlate it to the effect we see, correlate to previous toxicity studies –> see patterns

Question 2

What kind of information can be obtained when observing nanoparticles under scanning electron microscopy (SEM)?

Answer 2

Details about the surface
Pores, structures, defects,

Question 3

Which properties can be characterized by gas adsorption?

Answer 3

Gas adsorption is done to check porosity, pore size, pore size distrubtion and pore volume

You have gas filled chamber + sample –> see how much gas is adsorbed by reduction pressure - when the material adsorbs gas the pressure decrease and pore-size can be determined

Question 4

What is dynamic light scattering and what kind of information can we obtained from this characterization technique?

Answer 4

DLS measures the scattering light in one direction. Differences in scattering intensity can be use to calculate particle hydrodynamic diameter of particle. We get size/ size distribution for a sample.

Question 5

Which nanoparticle properties may change depending of the medium that the nanoparticles are suspended in?

Answer 5

Agglomeration - the polar non polar interaction
Surface charge due to pH
Size, in biological media –> protein corona