Prawpan Pusuwan and Atitaya Siripinyanond*

Single particle inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (SP-ICP-MS) in combination with settling process was used to study ZnO nanoparticles suspension stability in various media. The SP-ICP-MS along with settling experiment was carried out by suspending different sizes of ZnO nanoparticles in deionized water, Triton X-100, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide and sodium dodecyl sulfate, followed by collecting the sample at various times and vertical distances. Then, the collected samples were diluted and analyzed by SP-ICP-MS to obtain the information on particle size distribution and the particle number concentration. This newly developed method can be further applied to investigate dispersion stability of various types of nanoparticles in various suspending media at very low concentration.

Thanks are due to the National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT) and Mahidol University under grant number N41A640159. The support from the NSRF via the Program Management Unit for Human Resources & Institutional Development, Research and Innovation [grant number B05F640129] and the support from Center of Excellence for Innovation in Chemistry (PERCH-CIC) and National Research Council of Thailand (N11A650144) are gratefully acknowledged.