Determination of Nanoparticle Size Using a Flow Particle-Tracking Method.

We developed a novel method to determine the mean size of nanoparticles under flow conditions, the flow particle-tracking (FPT) method. The liquid particle counting method is commonly utilized to determine number-based size under flow conditions by converting the light scattering intensity of individual particles to size using the relationship between the size and light scattering intensity of a size standard material; however, the determined size depends strongly on the type of size standard material. In contrast, the developed FPT method can reliably determine the mean size of nanoparticles under flow conditions according to the Stokes-Einstein assumption by observing the Brownian motion of individual particles; therefore, this method does not require a calibration step using a size standard and can be applied to any type of material. To reliably size particles under flow conditions, we determined the flow velocity profile in a sample cell by extracting only the flow velocity from the particle motion. After determining the self-diffusion coefficient of each particle and subtracting the effect of the flow velocity, we successfully obtained a reliable mean size. The developed method could contribute to the application of microchannel reaction/synthesis devices using nanomaterials.