Resistive Pulse Sensing as a High‐Resolution Nanoparticle Sizing Method: A Comparative Study

Abstract

One of the main challenges of sizing methods for nanoparticle (NP) suspensions is to distinguish between particles and particle populations with very small size differences. This would be especially important to follow various surface functionalization processes of nanoparticles resulting in small alterations of their size. In this respect, methods involving the detection of single particles, such as resistive pulse sensing (RPS) or nanoparticle tracking analysis, are generally considered superior to ensemble measuring methods such as dynamic light scattering. However, to compare the exact capabilities of these methodologies require systematic investigations in optimized conditions for each method. Here, such a study is presented for a narrow size range of spherical latex nanoparticles (60–200 nm). It is concluded that the RPS methodology based on quartz nanopipets as single nanopore counters, is the only sizing method among those studied capable to fully resolve a ternary mixture of 70, 110, and 140 nm average diameter NPs. The practical usefulness of this size resolution is demonstrated by following the increase in diameter of latex nanoparticles after their surface modification with antibodies.