Silica nanoparticles are less toxic to human lung cells when deposited at the air–liquid interface compared to conventional submerged exposure

• Alicja Panas,
• Andreas Comouth,
• Harald Saathoff,
• Thomas Leisner,
• Marco Al-Rawi,
• Michael Simon,
• Gunnar Seemann,
• Olaf Dössel,
• Sonja Mülhopt,
• Hanns-Rudolf Paur,
• Susanne Fritsch-Decker,
• Carsten Weiss and
• Silvia Diabaté

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1590–1602, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.171

• each experiment by using a transmission electron microscope (Zeiss 109T, Oberkochen). The deposited particles were detected and analysed regarding their number and size with a custom-made software. For the calculation of mass doses spherical primary particles with a density of 2 g·cm−3 were assumed

Current state of laser synthesis of metal and alloy nanoparticles as ligand-free reference materials for nano-toxicological assays

• Christoph Rehbock,
• Jurij Jakobi,
• Lisa Gamrad,
• Selina van der Meer,
• Daniela Tiedemann,
• Ulrike Taylor,
• Wilfried Kues,
• Detlef Rath and
• Stephan Barcikowski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1523–1541, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.165

• these effects are anion specific and do not occur in the presence of hard anions like F− which destabilizes gold colloids even at low salinities. This size quenching effect has been attributed to the adsorption of anions to primary particles during particle formation, which electrostatically stabilizes

• stability will increase upon dilution. Based on the above mentioned three determining factors it may be concluded that ligand-free colloids may only be used as primary particles in biological assays when they are highly diluted, while at higher concentrations mainly aggregates have to be considered. However

Morphological characterization of fullerene–androsterone conjugates

• Alberto Ruiz,
• Margarita Suárez,
• Nazario Martin,
• Fernando Albericio and
• Hortensia Rodríguez

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 374–379, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.43

• dynamic light scattering (DLS) measures the hydrodynamic diameter of the particle including the solvation layers, while TEM gives the most direct information about the size distribution and shapes of the primary particles. DLS and TEM have different basis and can lead to discrepancies in sizing