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Nowadays, AgNPs are extensively used in the manufacture of consumer products,1 water disinfectants,2 therapeutics,1, 3 and biomedical devices4 due to their powerful antimicrobial properties.3-6 These nanoparticle applications are strongly influenced by the AgNP size and aggregation state. Many challenges exist in the controlled fabrication7 and size-based isolation4,8 of unfunctionalized, homogenous AgNPs that are free from chemically aggressive capping/stabilizing agents or organic solvents.7-13 Limitations emerge from the toxicity of reagents, high costs or reduced efficiency of the AgNP synthesis or isolation methods (e.g., centrifugation, size-dependent solubility, size-exclusion chromatography, etc.).10,14-18 To overcome this, we recently showed that TFU permits greater control over the size, concentration and aggregation state of Creighton AgNPs (300 ml of 15.3 μg ml-1 down to 10 ml of 198.7 μg ml-1) than conventional methods of isolation such as ultracentrifugation.19
TFU is a recirculation method commonly used for the weight-based isolation of proteins, viruses and cells.20,21 Briefly, the liquid sample is passed through a series of hollow fiber membranes with pore size ranging from 1,000 kD to 10 kD. Smaller suspended or dissolved constituents in the sample will pass through the porous barrier together with the solvent (filtrate), while the larger constituents are retained (retentate). TFU may be considered a "green" method as it neither damages the sample nor requires additional solvent to eliminate toxic excess reagents and byproducts. Furthermore, TFU may be applied to a large variety of nanoparticles as both hydrophobic and hydrophilic filters are available.
The two main objectives of this study were: 1) to illustrate the experimental aspects of the TFU approach through an invited video experience and 2) to demonstrate the feasibility of the TFU method for larger volumes of colloidal nanoparticles and smaller volumes of retentate. First, unfuctionalized AgNPs (4 L, 15.2 μg ml-1) were synthesized using the well-established Creighton method22,23 by the reduction of AgNO3 with NaBH4. AgNP polydispersity was then minimized via a 3-step TFU using a 50-nm filter (460 cm2) to remove AgNPs and AgNP-aggregates larger than 50 nm, followed by two 100-kD (200 cm2 and 20 cm2) filters to concentrate the AgNPs. Representative samples were characterized using transmission electron microscopy, UV-Vis absorption spectrophotometry, Raman spectroscopy, and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy. The final retentate consisted of highly concentrated (4 ml, 8,539.9 μg ml-1) yet lowly aggregated and homogeneous AgNPs of 1-20 nm in diameter. This corresponds to a silver concentration yield of about 62%.