AUC of Nanoparticles

Workshop and Discussion about Challenges in the AUC of Nanoparticles

Presenter: Helmut Cölfen, University of Konstanz, Germany

Description

Analytical Ultracentrifugation (AUC) was originally invented for the analysis of nanoparticles. It is still a great tool for their analysis. However, Nanoparticles pose special challenges to the researcher, which are typically not encountered in the analysis of proteins. These are:

Polydispersity
Hybrid character and therefore folded particle size and particle density distribution
Stabilization by charge, which cannot be shielded by buffers
A size which already leads to light scattering superimposing the signal by absorption
Shape distributions
Size dependent optical properties

The workshop will be in form of a presentation demonstrating solutions to these challenges as well as a discussion. These strategies can also be adapted to extremely polydisperse Biopolymers and complexes, which also have some of the above problems in common with nanoparticles. Users are encouraged to bring their own examples with them for discussion.

This workshop will be presented during session 2 and as a repeat session again during session 4.