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Updated: Feb 5, 2026

Asymmetrical Flow Field-Flow Fractionation for Sizing of Gold Nanoparticles in Suspension
Published on: September 11, 2020
Impact of Ionic Strength of Carrier Liquid on Recovery in Flow Field-Flow Fractionation
Tomasz Kowalkowski1,2, Mateusz Sugajski1,2, Bogusław Buszewski1,2
11Department of Environmental Chemistry and Bioanalytics, Faculty of Chemistry, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Gagarina 7, 87-100 Torun, Poland.
Abstract:
Asymmetrical flow field-flow fractionation (AF4) and hollow-fiber flow field-flow fractionation (HF5) are techniques widely used in analytical, industrial and biological analyses. The main problem in all AF4 and HF5 analyses is sample loss due to analyte-membrane interactions. In this work the impact of liquid carrier composition on latex nanoparticles (NPs) separation in water and two different concentrations of NH4NO3 was studied. In AF4, a constant trend of decreasing the size of 60 and 121.9 nm particles induced by the ionic strength of the carrier liquid has been observed. In contrast, an agglomeration effect of the biggest 356 nm particles was observed when increasing ionic strength, which induced a significant drop of recovery to 35%. H5F provides better resolution and intensified peaks of NPs, but careful optimisation of system parameters is mandatory to obtain good separation.
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