Title: Enumeration of colloidal sub-micron particles using tunable resistive pulse sensing

Authors: Evgeny Bogomolny; Geoff R. Willmott; John H.L. Beal; W. Mike Arnold

Addresses: The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand ' The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand ' Microfabrication and Microfluidics, Callaghan Innovation, P.O. Box 31310, Lower Hutt, New Zealand ' Microfabrication and Microfluidics, Callaghan Innovation, P.O. Box 31310, Lower Hutt, New Zealand

Abstract: Tunable resistive pulse sensing (TRPS) has been implemented alongside dynamic light scattering (DLS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to characterise a particle size distribution between 400 nm and 1 μm effective diameter. The carboxylate polystyrene particles studied were synthesised by dispersion polymerisation, and overall the data suggest that there are two modal peaks in the distribution. TRPS data indicated that the primary mode was near 630 nm, with a lesser peak near 830 nm. Two pores of different sizes were used for TRPS, and the lower size measurement threshold was apparent for both pores. High throughput particle-by-particle size measurement techniques such as TRPS are of interest for measuring synthetic particles, with potential roles including quality control and compliance, in addition to fundamental studies.

Keywords: tunable resistive pulse sensing; TRPS; particle size distribution; dispersion polymerisation; particle mixture analysis; dynamic light scattering; DLS; scanning electron microscopy; SEM; colloidal sub-micron particles; carboxylate polystyrene particles; nanoparticles; nanotechnology.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNT.2017.082427

International Journal of Nanotechnology, 2017 Vol.14 No.1/2/3/4/5/6, pp.38 - 46

Published online: 24 Feb 2017 *

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