Versailles project on advanced materials and standards (VAMAS) interlaboratory study on measuring the number concentration of colloidal gold nanoparticles†
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* Corresponding authors
a
Chemical & Biological Sciences Department, National Physical Laboratory, Hampton Road, Teddington TW11 0LW, UK
E-mail:
caterina.minelli@npl.co.uk
b National Measurement Laboratory, Queens road, Teddington TW11 0LY, UK
c Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Abbestr. 2-12, 10587 Berlin, Germany
d National Institute of Standards and Technology, 100 Bureau Drive, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899-8391, USA
e Xenocs SAS, 1-3 Allée du Nanomètre, 38000 Grenoble, France
f CSEM SA, Bahnhofstrasse 1, 7242 Landquart, Switzerland
g Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg 412 96, Sweden
h Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Material Science and Technology, Lerchenfeldstrasse 5, CH-9014 St Gallen, Switzerland
i ETH Zurich, Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 1, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland
j European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Geel, Belgium
k European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Ispra, Italy
l Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS, Winterbergstr. 28, 01217 Dresden, Germany
m The German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, Max-Dohrn Str. 8-10, Berlin, Germany
n Department of Materials, Department of Bioengineering and Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Imperial College London, Exhibition road, London SW7 2BX, UK
o Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi 110016, India
p Centre for Measurement Standards, Industrial Technology Research Institute, No. 321, Sec. 2, Kuang Fu Rd., Hsinchu, Taiwan, Republic of China
q Institute of Science and Technology for Ceramics, Via Granarolo 64, 48018 Faenza, Italy
r Karolinska Institutet, 171 77 Stockholm, Sweden
s Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS), 267 Gajeong-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 34113, Korea
t Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology, 41 rue du Brill, L-4422 Belvaux, Luxembourg
u MANTA Instruments, Inc., San Diego, CA, USA
v Military University of Technology, gen. Sylwestra Kaliskiego 2 str., 00-908 Warsaw, Poland
w National Center for Nanoscience and Technology (NCNST), No. 11, ZhongGuanCun BeiYiTiao, Beijing 100190, People's Republic of China
x NILU—Norwegian Institute for Air Research, Instituttveien 18, 2007 Kjeller, Norway
y University of Oslo, Sognsvannsveien 9, 0372 Oslo, Norway
z Nottingham Trent University, 50 Shakespeare St, Nottingham NG1 4FQ, UK
aa PerkinElmer, Chalfont Road, Seer Green, Bucks HP92FX, UK
ab Public Analyst's Laboratory, Sir Patrick Duns, Lower Grand Canal Street, Dublin 2, Ireland
ac Wageningen Food Safety Research, Wageningen University & Research, Akkermaalsbos 2, 6708 WB Wageningen, The Netherlands
ad Service Commun des Laboratoires, 3 Avenue Dr Albert Schweitzer, 33600 Pessac, France
ae Smith+Nephew, 101 Hessle Road, Hull HU3 2BN, UK
af SOLVAY Research & Innovation, Brussels Centre, Rue de Ransbeek 310, 1120 Brussels, Belgium
ag State Laboratory, Backweston Campus, Young's Cross, Celbridge, Co Kildare, W23 VW2C, Ireland
ah Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Lennart Hjelms väg 9, 75651 Uppsala, Sweden
ai Toray Research Center, Inc., 3-3-7 Sonoyama, Otsu, Shiga 5208567, Japan
aj Trinity Translational Medicine Institute, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
ak UK centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Lancaster Environment Centre, Library Avenue, Bailrigg, Lancaster LA1 4AP, UK
al UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Maclean Building, Benson Lane, Crowmarsh-Gifford, Wallingford, UK
am Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, 91405 Orsay, France
an Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK
ao Department of Chemical Engineering, University College London, Torrington Place, London, UK
ap School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, B15 2TT Birmingham, UK
aq Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California at Santa Barbara, CA, USA
ar Department of Chemistry, University of Jyväskylä, P.O. Box 35, FI-40014 Jyväskylä, Finland
as School of Science Engineering and Environment, University of Salford, M5 4WT Salford, UK
Abstract
We describe the outcome of a large international interlaboratory study of the measurement of particle number concentration of colloidal nanoparticles, project 10 of the technical working area 34, “Nanoparticle Populations” of the Versailles Project on Advanced Materials and Standards (VAMAS). A total of 50 laboratories delivered results for the number concentration of 30 nm gold colloidal nanoparticles measured using particle tracking analysis (PTA), single particle inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (spICP-MS), ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) light spectroscopy, centrifugal liquid sedimentation (CLS) and small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). The study provides quantitative data to evaluate the repeatability of these methods and their reproducibility in the measurement of number concentration of model nanoparticle systems following a common measurement protocol. We find that the population-averaging methods of SAXS, CLS and UV-Vis have high measurement repeatability and reproducibility, with between-labs variability of 2.6%, 11% and 1.4% respectively. However, results may be significantly biased for reasons including inaccurate material properties whose values are used to compute the number concentration. Particle-counting method results are less reproducibile than population-averaging methods, with measured between-labs variability of 68% and 46% for PTA and spICP-MS respectively. This study provides the stakeholder community with important comparative data to underpin measurement reproducibility and method validation for number concentration of nanoparticles.
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