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Updated: May 30, 2026

Dispersion of Nanomaterials in Aqueous Media: Towards Protocol Optimization
Published on: December 25, 2017
Influence of dissolved oxygen on aggregation kinetics of citrate-coated silver nanoparticles
Wen Zhang1, Ying Yao, Kungang Li
1School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA.
Abstract:
Aggregation, an important environmental behavior of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) influences their bioavailability and cytotoxicity. The work studied the influence of dissolved oxygen (DO) or the redox potential on the stability of AgNPs in aqueous environments. This study employed time-resolved dynamic light scattering (TR-DLS) to investigate the aggregation kinetics of citrate-coated AgNPs. Our results demonstrated that when DO was present, the aggregation rates became much faster (e.g., 3-8 times) than those without DO. The hydrodynamic sizes of AgNPs had a linear growth within the initial 4-6 h and after the linear growth, the hydrodynamic sizes became random for AgNPs in the presence of DO, whereas in the absence of DO the hydrodynamic sizes grew smoothly and steadily. Furthermore, the effects of primary particles sizes (20, 40, and 80 nm) and initial concentrations (300 and 600 μg/L) of AgNPs on aggregation kinetics were also investigated.
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