Challenges for Physical Characterization of Silver Nanoparticles Under Pristine and Environmentally Relevant Conditions

Published

March 17, 2011

Author(s)

Robert I. MacCuspie, Kim Rogers, Manomita Patra, Zhiyong Suo, Andrew J. Allen, Matthew N. Martin, Vincent A. Hackley

Abstract

The conditions used to disperse silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) strongly impact their resulting size measurements and agglomeration state, based on the underlying metrology and physical chemistry, respectively. A series of AgNP materials with reported diameters ranging from 1 nm to 100 nm, various size distributions, and biocompatible capping agents including citrate, starch and polyvinylpyrrolidone were studied. AgNPs were diluted with either deionized water, moderately hard reconstituted water, or moderately hard reconstituted water containing natural organic matter. Rigorous physico-chemical characterization by consensus methods and protocols where available enables an understanding of how the underlying metrology impacts the reported size measurements, which in turn provides a more complete understanding of the state (size, size distribution, agglomeration, etc.) of the AgNPs with respect to the dispersion conditions. A rational approach to developing routine screening is also presented.

Citation

Journal of Environmental Monitoring

Volume

13

Issue

5

Pub Type

Journals

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Citation

MacCuspie, R. , Rogers, K. , Patra, M. , Suo, Z. , Allen, A. , Martin, M. and Hackley, V. (2011), Challenges for Physical Characterization of Silver Nanoparticles Under Pristine and Environmentally Relevant Conditions, Journal of Environmental Monitoring, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=907651 (Accessed October 11, 2025)