Nanoparticle tracking analysis

The technique is used in conjunction with an ultramicroscope and a laser illumination unit that together allow small particles in liquid suspension to be visualized moving under Brownian motion.

NTA has been used by commercial, academic, and government laboratories working with nanoparticle toxicology, drug delivery, exosomes, microvesicles, bacterial membrane vesicles, and other small biological particles, virology and vaccine production, ecotoxicology, protein aggregation, orthopedic implants, inks and pigments, and nanobubbles.

In contrast to NTA, iNTA has a superior resolution based on a two-parameter analysis, including the size and the scattering cross-section of the particle.

For multi-exponential autocorrelation functions arising from polydisperse samples, deconvolution can give limited information about the particle size distribution profile.

This United Kingdom-based company, of which Knowles is the chairman and Carr is the chief technology officer, manufactures instruments that use NTA to detect and analyze small particles in industrial and academic laboratories.

Particle Metrix makes the ZetaView, which operates on the same NTA principle but uses different optics and fluidics in an attempt to improve sampling, zeta potential, and fluorescence detection.