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Probing the Deposition Kinetics of Nanoparticles by Plasmonic Imaging and Counting Single Nanoparticles
journal contribution
posted on 2020-03-14, 15:29 authored by Hai-Bo Chen, Di Jiang, Yi-Nan Liu, Chen Qian, Xiao-Li Zhou, Xian-Wei LiuUnderstanding the nanoparticle deposition
process is important
for predicting the transport and fate of nanoparticles in natural
and engineered aquatic environments. Traditional methods for deposition
studies are based on ensemble analysis of nanoparticles. Here, a single-nanoparticle
imaging method was used to probe the deposition kinetics of nanoparticles
by directly counting single nanoparticles with powerful surface plasmon
resonance microscopy (SPRM). The ability of SPRM to provide single-nanoparticle
imaging and its vertical sensitivity enabled us to differentiate collision
and attachment events and, consequently, determine the attachment
efficiency without any additional control experiments. As a proof-of-concept
application of SPRM in measuring nanoparticle deposition, the relationship
of the solution chemistry and surface chemistry with the attachment
efficiency of nanoparticles was correlated. These results demonstrated
that nanoparticle deposition kinetics at the single-particle level
can be obtained with SPRM and that this technology can also be used
to investigate other particle–particle or particle–surface
interactions in aquatic environments.