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An ongoing discussion whether traditional toxicological methods are sufficient to evaluate the risks associated with nanoparticle inhalation has led to the emergence of Air-Liquid interface toxicology. As a step in this process, this study explores the evolution of particle characteristics as they move from the airborne state into physiological solution. Airborne gold nanoparticles (AuNP) are generated using an evaporation-condensation technique. Spherical and agglomerate AuNPs are deposited into physiological solutions of increasing biological complexity. The AuNP size is characterized in air as mobility diameter and in liquid as hydrodynamic diameter. AuNP:Protein aggregation in physiological solutions is determined using dynamic light scattering, particle tracking analysis, and UV absorption spectroscopy. AuNPs deposited into homocysteine buffer form large gold-aggregates. Spherical AuNPs deposited in solutions of albumin were trapped at the Air-Liquid interface but was readily suspended in the solutions with a size close to that of the airborne particles, indicating that AuNP:Protein complex formation is promoted. Deposition into serum and lung fluid resulted in larger complexes, reflecting the formation of a more complex protein corona. UV absorption spectroscopy indicated no further aggregation of the AuNPs after deposition in solution. The corona of the deposited AuNPs shows differences compared to AuNPs generated in suspension. Deposition of AuNPs from the aerosol phase into biological fluids offers a method to study the protein corona formed, upon inhalation and deposition in the lungs in a more realistic way compared to particle liquid suspensions. This is important since the protein corona together with key particle properties (e.g. size, shape and surface reactivity) to a large extent may determine the nanoparticle effects and possible translocation to other organs.

A simple gas-phase method has been developed for producing size- and composition-controlled nanoparticles of binary alloys. The process includes the formation and classification of aerosol nanoparticles of one material and the subsequent condensation of a controlled shell of another. The shell thickness is controlled by the evaporation temperature of the second material. Here we study the Au-Ga system with particle compositions ranging from pure Au to 50 atomic percent Ga. Transmission electron microscopy was used to study the morphology, composition, and structure of the generated particles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Morphological changes of agglomerates consisting of nanometer primary gold particles were studied experimentally and theoretically. Gold aerosol nanoparticles were produced using the evaporation/condensation method, and the change in agglomerate size by reheating was examined experimentally using a tandem DMA setup. Numerical calculations, based on two extreme mechanisms to reshape agglomerates, i.e., subsequent coalescence of primary particles and subsequent rearrangement of primary particles, were carried out. By comparison with the experimental results, the sintering time and the rate constant of restructuring were obtained. Using these values, the change in particle size for different generation conditions could be calculated. The change in morphology of agglomerates can be explained from the comparison of the experimental results with the theoretical calculations: agglomerates with smaller primary particles will compact mainly by the subsequent coalescence of primary particles, while agglomerates with larger primary particles will compact mainly by a rearrangement of primary particles. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]