Selected Standard Protocols for the Synthesis, Phase Transfer, and Characterization of Inorganic Colloidal Nanoparticles

Abstract

Synthesis, characterization, and applications of colloidal nanoparticles have been a prominent topic of current research interests within the last two decades. Available reports in the literature that describe the synthesis of colloidal nanoparticles are abundant with various degrees of reproducibility and simplicity. Moreover, different methods for the characterization of colloidal nanoparticles' basic properties are employed, resulting in conflicting results in many cases. Herein, we describe "in detail" selected standard protocols for the synthesis, purification, and characterization of various types of colloidal inorganic nanoparticles including gold nanoparticles, silver nanoparticles, iron oxide nanoparticles, and quantum dots. This report consists of five main parts: The first and the second part are dedicated to describing the synthesis of various types of hydrophobic and hydrophilic nanoparticles in organic solvents and in aqueous solutions, respectively. The third part describes surface modification of nanoparticles with focus on ligand exchange reactions, to allow phase transfer of nanoparticles from aqueous to organic solvents and vice versa. The fourth and the fifth part describe various general purification and characterization techniques used to purify and characterize nanoparticles, respectively. Collectively, this contribution does not aim to cover all available protocols in the literature to prepare inorganic nanoparticles, but rather provides detailed synthetic procedures to important inorganic nanocrystals with full description of their purification and characterization process.

Subcellular distributions of iron oxide nanoparticles in rat brains affected by different surface modifications

“…The increases in hydrodynamic sizes and the changes of the zeta potential suggest that RGD or BSA has been modified on the Mal‐SPIONs. The hydrodynamic sizes of the nanoparticles in NaCl solutions with different concentrations in accordance with the protocol described in the literature (Hühn et al, ) have been measured, which indicates the high colloidal stabilities of the nanoparticles, except that the hydrodynamic sizes of BSA/Mal‐SPIONs increased at above 1.5 M NaCl concentration for 24 h (Figure a–c).…”

Aqueous Stable Gold Nanostar/ZIF‐8 Nanocomposites for Light‐Triggered Release of Active Cargo Inside Living Cells

“…Thesamples without PMA showed as harp weight loss (50-60 wt %) at around 400 8 8C, associated with the total combustion of 2-methylimidazole and the formation of different inorganic residues:ZnO in case of ZIF-8, or ZnO and Au 0 in case of NC and NC-HOE, as identified by XRPD of the residues (Table S5 and Figure S11). [15] Thew eight loss is followed by the combustion of the 2methylimidazole,a si nn on-PMA samples ( % 400 8 8C). [15] Thew eight loss is followed by the combustion of the 2methylimidazole,a si nn on-PMA samples ( % 400 8 8C).…”

Optimizing conditions for labeling of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) with gold nanoparticles: a prerequisite for in vivo tracking of MSCs

“…The concentration of the coated Au NPs was determined by UV/Vis absorption spectroscopy [53]. For detailed characterization of the physicochemical properties of these NPs we refer to previous studies [20, 53–55]. The Au NPs were found to be colloidally stable up to physiological NaCl concentrations (see the Additional file 1).…”

“…For our study we employed 4.25 (±0.88) nm Au NPs coated with the amphiphilic polymer poly (isobutylene- alt -maleic anhydride) modified with dodecylamine (PMA). The NPs were purified via gel electrophoresis or ultracentrifugation, and subjected to full characterization as previously reported [20]. This included UV/Vis absorption spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and dynamic light scattering (DLS).…”