A Comparative Study of Particle Size Measurement of Silver, Gold and Silica Sand Nanoparticles with Different Nanometrological Techniques

Sayed, Rania; M. Elmasri, Moustafa; Dhmees, Abdelghaffar S.

doi:10.21608/ejchem.2022.150764.6562

A Comparative Study of Particle Size Measurement of Silver, Gold and Silica Sand Nanoparticles with Different Nanometrological Techniques

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Researcher at Material Testing and Chemical Surface Analysis Laboratory, National Institute of Standards, P. O. Box: 136 Giza, Code No. 12211 Giza, Egypt

² Researcher at Inorganic and Electrochemistry Laboratory National Institute of Standards, P. O. Box: 136 Giza, Code No. 12211 Giza, Egypt

³ Researcher at Analysis and Evaluation Department Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute, Cairo 11727, Egypt

10.21608/ejchem.2022.150764.6562

Abstract

The composition, size, shape, charge and surface chemistry of nanoparticles are critical properties that need to be tightly controlled and measured for many applications ranging from fabrication of nanoparticle reference material to developing nanometer-sized dimensions products. Measuring the particle size of nanomaterials helps to evaluate their safety, quality and efficiency. In fact, there is not a single characterization technique to measure the particle size of nanoparticles accurately. This comparative study introduced three nanometrological techniques, X-ray diffraction (XRD), dynamic light scattering (DLS) and high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HR-TEM), to measure particle size and explain the difference in sizing measurements performed. Five samples of nanoparticles were analyzed, commercial silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs from sigma Aldrich and Metalon), biosynthesized silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs), biosynthesized gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) and ball milled silica sand nanoparticles (SS NPs). The particle size measured with the non-destructive DLS technique was close to the crystallite size calculated from the XRD pattern by using Debye-Scherrer’s equation. The particle size measured by the high-resolution sizing technique (TEM) was the most accurate measurement because the microscope directly observed and measured individual nanoparticles. A scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used to investigate the morphology of the five analyzed samples. uncertainty in particle size measurements was estimated from statistical analysis of repeated readings of the measured value.

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