Nanomaterials are surging in interest for a variety of applications: medicine, agriculture and more. However, the environmental effects of nanoscale materials such as nanoplastics are of increasing concern. Beyond potential toxicities of the nanomaterials themselves, nanoparticles can serve as carriers of other chemicals, for example active pharmaceutical ingredients or environmental pollutants.

The challenges associated with detecting and characterizing nanomaterials in the environment include exposure to a complex matrix that can interfere with their detection and may induce particle degradation, chemical release or other transformations.

Multi-detector asymmetric-flow field–flow fractionation (MD-AF4) is a versatile technique for separating nanoparticles from complex matrices and characterizing their size and compositional analysis.

About this webinar:

This webinar will present new developments, covering two applications: (1) monitoring drug release from nanoparticles in biomedical applications and (2) detecting heavy metal uptake onto nanoplastics in environmental samples. MD-AF4 analysis provides key benefits for evaluating sample composition and changes over time.

Key learning objectives:

How AF4 separates complex mixtures of macromolecules and nanoparticles into a continuous size distribution

The benefits of coupling AF4 with multiple detection modules, including light scattering, for comprehensive analysis of the composition of each population in the sample

How size-resolved MD-AF4 analyses provide valuable information in both mechanistic research studies and quality assessments