Direct observation Brownian motion of individual nanoparticles in water using microsphere-assisted microscopy

Observing Brownian motion of nanoscale objects through a traditional optical microscope is still a challenge. Here, we present a method to overcome this challenge by using a traditional optical microscope assisted with a removable microsphere-embedded thin film. The diffusion coefficient of individual unconstrained polystyrene (PS) nanoparticles with a diameter of 300 nm in water is calculated from their respective mean-square displacement versus time curves, and the measured diffusion coefficient shows good agreement with the theoretical Stokes-Einstein one, proving the feasibility of our method. In addition, the experimental results show that the movement of the PS nanoparticles is slowed down near a plane wall, and the diffusion coefficient is consistent with the theoretical constrained diffusion coefficient, which shows that our method can also study the constrained Brownian motion of nanoparticles constrained near a plane wall. Our research results are helpful for the application of microsphere-assisted microscopy in new fields and also provide a new method for nanoparticle tracking.