Malvern Nanotechnology Particle Measurement
‘Nano’ materials have a size or features on the scale of around 1nm to 100nm nanometers.
Nanoscale technology (or "nanotechnology") refers to a range of techniques used to manipulate matter at the scale of atoms and molecules. The word ‘Nano’ is a size scale, rather than a material, one nanometre being one billionth of a metre. The matter being manipulated can be any material organic or inorganic. This is different to other subjects such as ‘Biotechnology’ for example, which defines specifically that ‘bios’ or life is being manipulated.
The Malvern Zetasizer series includes the most popular light scattering system for measuring the size of nanoparticles available. This is because it is the highest sensitivity, easiest to use system, that therefore has the ability to measure the size of particles at the scale of 1 nanometre and below, with minimal training.
Aggregation, Flocculation and Coagulation
The ability to monitor the presence and formation of aggregates is one of the strengths of light scattering techniques. The intensity of light scattered is proportional to the sixth power of the diameter (I µ d6) for small molecules and particles, which means that the techniques are highly sensitive to the detection of larger materials in a distribution of sizes.
This sensitivity is useful in a variety of applications:
Colloid Aggregation
Examples of applications for colloid aggregation include quality control, accelerated stability studies and shelf life improvement
Protein Aggregation
Examples of applications fort protein aggregation include stability studies purity tests and crystallisation screening
