NPL and the Royal Society of Chemistry concentrate on nanoparticle measurement. Richard Brown delivered the prestigious L S Theobald Lecture of the Royal Society of Chemistry The outcomes of the EMPIR project Innanopart (Metrology for Innovative Nanoparticles, led by Alex Shard of the Surface Technology Group) were disseminated in a two-day event organised and chaired by Caterina Minelli (Surface Technology Group) in collaboration with the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). Delegates at the Symposium The event took place at Burlington House in central London on 24 and 25 April 2018 in the Library of the RSC and attracted more than 120 international attendees from National Measurement Institutes, industry, academia, standardisation bodies, instrument manufacturers and regulators. The event created a forum for the discussion of critical requirements and state-of-the-art measurements for nanoparticle concentration. It highlighted the needs for further standardisation in the field, including the pressing requirement of nanoparticle reference materials with known number concentration to calibrate instruments, underpin reproducibility and develop new technologies such as nanoscale drug delivery vehicles in a safe and reliable manner. Sony Shrestha, PhD student of the Surface Technology Group, and was awarded the runner-up poster prize The event was opened by Richard Brown (pictured above), who delivered the prestigious L S Theobald Lecture of the Royal Society of Chemistry, awarded to people who has made significant contribution to analytical chemistry (a link to the presentation is below). Sony Shrestha, PhD student of the Surface Technology Group, was awarded the runner up poster prize, while Caterina Minelli and David Cant of the same group delivered oral presentations. Part of the presentations will be made available on the website of the Innanopart. Vince Hackley from NIST said: “This meeting was exceptionally well organised and the high level of engagement by participants representing industry, academia and government was noteworthy. The consistent emphasis on metrology, standards and traceability, as they relate to the substantial challenges posed by concentration measurements across a range of nanomaterials and products, was both encouraging and highly informative. This was as much tutorial as it was symposium.” Paul Gunning from Smith & Nephew said: “An excellent Symposium giving both experienced practitioners and those new to field as comprehensive an overview as possible of the current state-of-the-art for the measurement of nanoparticle concentration and size. The breadth of techniques reported across all of the speaker presentations, provided an easily digestible synopsis with regard to the complexity of making credible measurements of ‘real-world’ nanoparticles, amply demonstrating the importance of leveraging several different techniques for a given measurement. The presentations and posters were of very high quality, each highlighting the strengths and limitations of each currently available technique with reference to different physico-chemical systems and application areas. The Symposium also benefited by the inclusion of a second day of high quality presentations covering much of the output of an EU-funded (EMPIR) Project entitled ‘Innanopart’; metrology for innovative nanoparticles. Contributions from metrology practitioners and instrument manufactures were given additional context with an overview of current regulatory and standards work as it stands across the multiple international standards committees and agencies. With contributions from National Measurement and Standards Institutions from Europe, Australasia and North America, as well as contributions from industrial stakeholders, both days represented a time-efficient and valuable learning resource for anybody engaged in the analysis, regulation or industrial applications and control of nanoparticles. From the perspective of industrial R&D, this well organised event was exceptionally relevant and information-rich.” Florian Meier from Postnova Analytics said: “I would like to thank you for setting up and hosting this wonderful Symposium. For us as a company related to particle characterization, it was a great opportunity to get in touch with the people that are pushing the topic of determining nanoparticle concentrations forward. We would be very happy to participate again if there are plans for further Symposia covering related topics in the field of nanomaterial characterization at the RSC/NPL.” Nikolai Khlebtsov from the Russian Academy of Sciences said: “Thanks a lot for your hospitality and all your and your team efforts resulting in a very successful meeting. I really liked it and I have received extremely useful information from a new metrological filed. Thank you very much indeed!” Fredrik Hook from Chalmers University (Sweden) said: “Thanks for inviting me to this very interesting meeting. I find metrology the most important and in many areas ignored subject in science.” Patrick Hole from Malver Panalytical said: “This was a very effective conference for us – the tight focus of the conference meant that we knew all participants would be interested in the specific subject matter, and that was the case. The moderate size meant there were sufficient people to make it commercially valuable, but also small enough to support a good level of interaction and discussions with attendees about their challenges. The conference was organised very well, the speakers were of excellent quality and the venue supported the scientific ambience that thrived during the two days we were present.” For further information please contact Caterina Minelli: caterina.minelli@npl.co.uk Presentations The L S Theobald Lecture: Measuring airborne nanoparticles, and related topics Richard Brown (NPL, UK) Single nanoparticle analytics: from viruses via exosomes to drug delivery carrier Fredrik Höök, Chalmers University (Sweden) Nanoparticle reference materials: Lessons Learned and the Case for Concentration Measurements Vince Hackley (NIST, USA) Determination of size and concentration of gold and silica nanoparticles from absorption and turbidity spectra Nikolai Khlebtsov (Russian Academy of Science, Saratov State University, Russia) Relative nanoparticle concentration with benchtop methods Victoria Coleman (National Measurement Institute, Australia) What does it take to accurately measure the concentration of particles in colloids? Kuba Tatarkiewicz (MANTA Instruments, USA) Advances in particle concentration measurements Hanna Jankevics Jones (Malvern Panalytical, UK) Particle Tracking Analysis for particle counting Denis Koltsov (BREC Solutions, UK)
