Nanoparticles Drive the Nanotechnology Revolution

White Paper

Nanoparticles – their size, properties, and uses – play a critical role in the growing field of nanotechnology. Typically defined as particles in the range of 1 – 100 nm, nanoparticles typically have unique properties that are exploited to create new materials and products. Industries currently using nanoparticles for commercial applications include microelectronics, drug delivery, cosmetics, automotive, and many others.

Since the size and surface properties of nanoparticles are critical physical parameters influencing behavior, proper particle size analysis is essential in both research and development and ultimately in quality control. Dynamic light scattering (DLS) to determine size and electrophoretic light scattering (ELS) to measure zeta potential (surface charge) are the most commonly used analytical tools to perform these measurements.

Nanoparticles and Vaccine Production

Many new vaccines are messenger RNA (mRNA) and are delivered via lipid nanoparticles. Lipid nanoparticles play pivotal roles in the parameters of the drug. Hence accurate and rapid measurement of the size of lipid nanoparticles is essential for novel and effective drug delivery systems.

To determine concentration and proper synthesis for effective lipid nanoparticle delivery, quantitation and sizing are required. These are critical qualification requirements particularly with new COVID-19 mRNA vaccines. Our particle sizing technologies can accurately and rapidly measure both quantity and size to meet these urgent needs.

This paper intends to:

• Define nanoparticles
• Various applications of nanoparticles
• The analytical techniques used for their physical characterization