The Importance of Nano-materials Characterization Techniques

The potential application of nanotechnology in the medical field ranges from nanomaterials and biological devices, to nanoelectronics biosensors, can be extended to molecular nanotechnology like biological machines. Nanomaterial characterization is a keystone for the development and adoption of nanomaterials for certain applications. The unique and novel physico-chemical properties of nanomaterial gave rise to a number of characterization techniques. Therefore, nanoparticles are characterized to study various physical and chemical features such as composition, structure size, morphology, surface area, optical properties, surface composition, oxidation state, and electrochemistry. The characterization of nanomaterials should not be limited to a single technique, because usually multiple measurements are needed to capture all pertinent nanomaterial characteristics. Hence, in this chapter, details of different characterization techniques such as transmission electron microscopy (TEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), dynamic light scattering (DLS), infrared spectroscopy (IR), and zeta potential (ZP) are discussed.