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Computer assisted detection and quantification of single adsorbing nanoparticles by differential surface plasmon microscopy

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Abstract

Sensitive detection of engineered nanoparticles (NPs) in air and in liquid samples is an important task and still a major challenge in analytical chemistry. Recent work demonstrated that it can be performed using surface plasmon microscopy (SPM) where binding of single NPs to a surface leads to the formation of characteristic patterns in differential SPM images. However, these patterns have to be discriminated from a noisy background. Computer-assisted recognition of nanoparticles offers a solution but requires the development of respective tools for data analysis. Hereby a numerical method for automated detection and characterization of images of single adsorbing NPs in SPM image sequences is presented. The detection accuracy of the method was validated using computer generated images and manual counting. The method was applied for detecting and imaging of gold and silver NPs adsorbing from aqueous dispersions and for soot and NaCl NPs adsorbing from aerosols. The determined adsorption rate was in range 0.1–40 NPs per (s mm2) and linearly dependent on the concentration of nanoparticles. Depending on the type of NPs and signal to noise ratio, a probability of recognition of 90–95 % can be achieved.

A computer-assisted method is presented for the detection and characterization of images of single adsorbing nanoparticles in surface plasmon microscopy images. The method was validated and can be applied to detecting and imaging of nanoparticles absorbed from aqueous dispersions and aerosols.

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Acknowledgments

The work was supported by FP7 EC Project “Nanodetector” (FP7-NMP-2011-SME-5, #280478). The authors are grateful to the partners of the Project “Nanodetector” for fruitful collaboration during the development and assembly of the experimental device. We acknowledge K. Tonder, F. Klemm, V. Scherbahn and M. Michling for assistance in the experimental measurements and manual verification of the numerical particle detection as well as an assistance of students of BTU Cottbus—Senftenberg in the manual validation of the counting software.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. MIVITEC GmbH, Wamslerstr. 4, 81829, Munich, Germany

    Irina Sidorenko

  2. Department of Biotechnology, Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus – Senftenberg, Grossenhainerstr. 57, 01968, Senftenberg, Germany

    Shavkat Nizamov & Vladimir M. Mirsky

  3. Leibniz Institute for Analytical Sciences (ISAS), Bunsen-Kirchhoff-Str. 11, 44139, Dortmund, Germany

    Roland Hergenröder, Alexander Zybin & Alexei Kuzmichev

  4. Institute of Hydrochemistry, Technical University of Munich, Marchioninistr. 17, 81377, Munich, Germany

    Bettina Kiwull & Reinhard Niessner

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  1. Irina Sidorenko
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  2. Shavkat Nizamov
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  3. Roland Hergenröder
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  4. Alexander Zybin
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  5. Alexei Kuzmichev
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  6. Bettina Kiwull
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  7. Reinhard Niessner
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  8. Vladimir M. Mirsky
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Correspondence to Vladimir M. Mirsky.

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Sidorenko, I., Nizamov, S., Hergenröder, R. et al. Computer assisted detection and quantification of single adsorbing nanoparticles by differential surface plasmon microscopy. Microchim Acta 183, 101–109 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-015-1599-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-015-1599-0

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