(256m) Determination of Size and Concentration of Unlabeled Nanoparticles Using a Tunable Conical Nanopore

The advance of nanofabrication techniques opens up new opportunities for preparing nanopores with various geometries for potential applications, such as nanofluidic diodes and single-molecule biosensing. In this study, soft nanoparticles, composed of Hydrogenated Lecithin (HL), were prepared by the thin film hydration method and their physicochemical properties, including size, zeta potential and particle concentration, were analyzed using a tunable nanopore made of polyurethane. Compared with conventional analytical tools like TEM and dynamic light scattering, the adopted nanopore sensing technique is suitable for any types of nanoparticles and more sensitive and accurate without any pretreatment procedures because the foundation of measurement relies on the translocation of single nanoparticles through a nanopore. Results show that the HL nanoparticles are slightly negatively charged and their size ranges from 60 and 70 nm, which are consistent with the experimental data measured by the TEM and dynamic light scattering and the experimentally reported data in the literatures.