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Surface coating and matrix effect on the electrophoretic mobility of gold nanoparticles: a capillary electrophoresis-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry study

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Abstract

Capillary electrophoresis (CE) is considered as a versatile technique in the size-based separation and speciation of nanomaterials. The electrophoretic mobility is determined by charge and size of an analyte which are affected by the surface composition of nanomaterials. Size-dependent differential electrophoretic mobility is used as a mechanism for size-based separation of nanoparticles. Understanding the effect of surface chemistry on the electrophoretic mobility of nanomaterials in CE is critical in obtaining accurate results in retention-based size calculation. A suite of gold nanoparticles (NPs) varied in sizes with different coatings, including citric acid (CA), lipoic acid (LA), tannic acid (TA), polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), polyethylene glycol (PEG), branched polyethyleneimine (BPEI), and bovine serum albumin (BSA), were selected to evaluate their impact to the migration pattern of gold NPs. Additionally, surface-coated gold NPs dispersed in Suwannee River humic acid (SRHA) solution and fetal bovine serum (FBS) were used to investigate the matrix effect. It was found that the correlation between NP size and relative electrophoretic mobility is highly dependent on the capping agents. The matrix component in the SRHA solution only exhibited limited influence to the migration of NPs while electrophoretic behaviors were drastically altered in the presence of FBS matrix.

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Acknowledgments

These studies were conducted using the Nanotechnology Core Facility (NanoCore) located on the US Food and Drug Administration’s Jefferson Laboratories campus (Jefferson, AR), which houses the FDA National Center for Toxicological Research and the FDA Office of Regulatory Affairs/Arkansas Regional Laboratory. We thank Patrick Sisco, Crystal Ford, Jin-Hee Lim, Yasith Nanayakkara, Venu Gopal Bairi, and Nuwan Kothalawala for their valuable comments on the draft manuscript. This project was supported in part by an appointment to the Research Participation Program at the Office of Regulatory Affairs/Arkansas Regional Laboratory, US Food and Drug Administration, administered by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education through an interagency agreement between the US Department of Energy and FDA. The views expressed in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as the official opinion or policy of the US Food and Drug Administration, Department of Health and Human Services, or any other agency or component of the US government. The mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations is for clarification of the methods used and should not be interpreted as an endorsement of a product or manufacturer.

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  1. Office of Regulatory Affairs, Arkansas Regional Laboratory, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 3900 NCTR Road, Jefferson, AR, 72079, USA

    Haiou Qu, Sean W. Linder & Thilak K. Mudalige

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  1. Haiou Qu
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  2. Sean W. Linder
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  3. Thilak K. Mudalige
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Correspondence to Thilak K. Mudalige.

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Qu, H., Linder, S.W. & Mudalige, T.K. Surface coating and matrix effect on the electrophoretic mobility of gold nanoparticles: a capillary electrophoresis-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry study. Anal Bioanal Chem 409, 979–988 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-016-0012-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-016-0012-0

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