Packing and size determination of colloidal nanoclusters.

Here we demonstrate a rapid and quantitative means to characterize the size and packing structure of small clusters of nanoparticles in colloidal suspension. Clustering and aggregation play important roles in a wide variety of phenomena of both scientific and technical importance, yet characterizing the packing of nanoparticles within small clusters and predicting their aerodynamic size remains challenging because available techniques can lack adequate resolution and sensitivity for clusters smaller than 100 nm (optical techniques), perturb the packing arrangement (electron microscopies), or provide only an ensemble average (light scattering techniques). In this article, we use electrospray-differential mobility analysis (ES-DMA), a technique that exerts electrical and drag forces on the clusters, to determine the size and packing of small clusters. We provide an analytical model to determine the mobility size of various packing geometries based on the projected area of the clusters. Data for clusters aggregated from nominally 10 nm gold particles and nonenveloped viruses of various sizes show good agreement between measured and predicted cluster sizes for close-packed spheres.

[1]  A. Wiedensohler,et al.  An approximation of the bipolar charge distribution for particles in the submicron size range , 1988 .

[2]  W. Deen.  Analysis Of Transport Phenomena , 1998 .

[3]  Benjamin J. Fischer,et al.  Particle convection in an evaporating colloidal droplet , 2002 .

[4]  Pratim Biswas,et al.  Charge reduced electrospray size spectrometry of mega- and gigadalton complexes: whole viruses and virus fragments. , 2006, Analytical chemistry.

[5]  M. Tarlov,et al.  Determination of protein aggregation with differential mobility analysis: Application to IgG antibody , 2008, Biotechnology and bioengineering.

[6]  Yan-Kai Tzeng,et al.  Microscopy-based mass measurement of a single whole virus in a cylindrical ion trap. , 2006, Angewandte Chemie.

[7]  David Y. H. Pui,et al.  Measurement of 100 nm and 60 nm Particle Standards by Differential Mobility Analysis , 2006, Journal of research of the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

[8]  G. Allmaier,et al.  Nano ES GEMMA and PDMA, new tools for the analysis of nanobioparticles—Protein complexes, lipoparticles, and viruses , 2008, Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry.

[9]  M. Tarlov,et al.  Quantifying the Surface Coverage of Conjugate Molecules on Functionalized Nanoparticles , 2007 .

[10]  Hai Wang,et al.  Drag force, diffusion coefficient, and electric mobility of small particles. II. Application. , 2003, Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics.

[11]  M. Tarlov,et al.  Gas-phase ion-mobility characterization of SAM-functionalized Au nanoparticles. , 2008, Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids.

[12]  Gary Siuzdak,et al.  Electrospray ion mobility spectrometry of intact viruses , 2004 .

[13]  Janelle L. Coutts,et al.  A one-step highly sensitive method for DNA detection using dynamic light scattering. , 2008, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[14]  Paul Bartlett,et al.  Dynamical arrest in attractive colloids: the effect of long-range repulsion. , 2005, Physical review letters.

[15]  W. Saenger,et al.  TIME-RESOLVED SMALL-ANGLE STATIC LIGHT SCATTERING ON LYSOZYME DURING NUCLEATION AND GROWTH , 1998 .

[16]  R. Flagan,et al.  Particle formation and growth in single-stage aerosol reactors , 1991 .

[17]  C. Sorensen,et al.  Kinetics of phase transformations in depletion-driven colloids. , 2004, Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics.

[18]  Kangtaek Lee,et al.  Kinetics of gold nanoparticle aggregation: experiments and modeling. , 2008, Journal of colloid and interface science.

[19]  P Zöllner,et al.  Charge-reduced nano electrospray ionization combined with differential mobility analysis of peptides, proteins, glycoproteins, noncovalent protein complexes and viruses. , 2001, Journal of mass spectrometry : JMS.

[20]  J. Fernández de la Mora,et al.  Mass analysis of water-soluble polymers by mobility measurement of charge-reduced ions generated by electrosprays. , 2004, Analytical chemistry.

[21]  Daniel I. Lipin,et al.  Quantitative characterization of virus‐like particles by asymmetrical flow field flow fractionation, electrospray differential mobility analysis, and transmission electron microscopy , 2009, Biotechnology and bioengineering.

[22]  S. Lute,et al.  Particle concentration measurement of virus samples using electrospray differential mobility analysis and quantitative amino acid analysis. , 2009, Journal of chromatography. A.

[23]  M. Tarlov,et al.  Aggregation kinetics of colloidal particles measured by gas-phase differential mobility analysis. , 2009, Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids.

[24]  J. Shumaker-Parry,et al.  Versatile solid phase synthesis of gold nanoparticle dimers using an asymmetric functionalization approach. , 2007, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[25]  M. Carignano,et al.  Cluster size analysis of two-dimensional order in colloidal gold nanoparticle arrays. , 2004, Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids.

[26]  G. Mulholland,et al.  Understanding ion-mobility and transport properties of aerosol nanowires , 2007 .

[27]  Orlin D. Velev,et al.  Structured porous materials via colloidal crystal templating: from inorganic oxides to metals , 2000 .

[28]  P. S. Epstein,et al.  On the Resistance Experienced by Spheres in their Motion through Gases , 1924 .

[29]  Vinothan N Manoharan,et al.  Dense Packing and Symmetry in Small Clusters of Microspheres , 2003, Science.