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Research article - Peer-reviewed, 2022

Versailles project on advanced materials and standards (VAMAS) interlaboratory study on measuring the number concentration of colloidal gold nanoparticles

Minelli, Caterina; Wywijas, Magdalena; Bartczak, Dorota; Cuello-Nunez, Susana; Infante, Heidi Goenaga; Deumer, Jerome; Gollwitzer, Christian; Krumrey, Michael; Murphy, Karen E.; Johnson, Monique E.; Bustos, Antonio R. Montoro; Strenge, Ingo H.; Faure, Bertrand; Hoghoj, Peter; Tong, Vivian; Burr, Loic; Norling, Karin; Hook, Fredrik; Roesslein, Matthias; Kocic, Jovana;
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Abstract

We describe the outcome of a large international interlaboratory study of the measurement of particle number concentration of colloidal nanoparticles, project 10 of the technical working area 34, "Nanoparticle Populations" of the Versailles Project on Advanced Materials and Standards (VAMAS). A total of 50 laboratories delivered results for the number concentration of 30 nm gold colloidal nanoparticles measured using particle tracking analysis (PTA), single particle inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (spICP-MS), ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) light spectroscopy, centrifugal liquid sedimentation (CLS) and small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). The study provides quantitative data to evaluate the repeatability of these methods and their reproducibility in the measurement of number concentration of model nanoparticle systems following a common measurement protocol. We find that the population-averaging methods of SAXS, CLS and UV-Vis have high measurement repeatability and reproducibility, with between-labs variability of 2.6%, 11% and 1.4% respectively. However, results may be significantly biased for reasons including inaccurate material properties whose values are used to compute the number concentration. Particle-counting method results are less reproducibile than population-averaging methods, with measured between-labs variability of 68% and 46% for PTA and spICP-MS respectively. This study provides the stakeholder community with important comparative data to underpin measurement reproducibility and method validation for number concentration of nanoparticles.

Published in

Nanoscale
2022, volume: 14, number: 12, pages: 4690-4704
Publisher: ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY

Authors' information

Minelli, Caterina
National Physical Laboratory - UK
Wywijas, Magdalena
ET Enterprises Ltd 45
Bartczak, Dorota
UK National Measurement Laboratory
Wywijas, Magdalena
National Physical Laboratory - UK
Cuello-Nunez, Susana
UK National Measurement Laboratory
Infante, Heidi Goenaga
UK National Measurement Laboratory
Deumer, Jerome
Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB)
Gollwitzer, Christian
Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB)
Krumrey, Michael
Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB)
Murphy, Karen E.
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) - USA
Johnson, Monique E.
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) - USA
Bustos, Antonio R. Montoro
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) - USA
Strenge, Ingo H.
Universitat Siegen
Strenge, Ingo H.
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) - USA
Faure, Bertrand
Xenocs SAS
Hoghoj, Peter
Xenocs SAS
Tong, Vivian
National Physical Laboratory - UK
Burr, Loic
Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM)
Norling, Karin
Chalmers University of Technology
Hook, Fredrik
Chalmers University of Technology
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UKÄ Subject classification

Nano-technology

Publication Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/d1nr07775a

URI (permanent link to this page)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/116589