Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis for Multiparameter Characterization and Counting of Nanoparticle Suspensions

Nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA) provides direct and real time visualization, sizing and counting of particulate materials between 10 nm and 1 μm in liquid suspension. The technique works on a particle by particle basis, relating the degree of movement under Brownian motion to the sphere equivalent hydrodynamic diameter particle size, allowing for high-resolution particle size distributions to be obtained within minutes. NTA has been used in studying protein complexes and protein aggregates, protein nanoparticles, metal nanoparticles, silica nanoparticles, viruses, cellular vesicles and exosomes to name just a few. Here we describe application of NTA to the analysis of model nanospheres of ~100 nm in liquid suspension, the size being representative of the middle of the NTA working range. The technique described can be adapted for use with nearly all particulate materials with sizes between approximately 10 nm and 1 μm, with appropriate adjustments to instrument settings.