Optofluidic Force Induction: A Workbench for Nanoparticle Characterization and Material Analytics

Nanoparticle characterization in dispersion lies at the heart of modern research and industry, which is transitioning from batch-wise to continuous production. In many cases, manufacturers of nanoparticle-based products must comply with prescribed regulations and rely on precise knowledge and control of critical process parameters that directly affect the quality of a final product. In this Mini Review, we present Optofluidic Force Induction (OF2i) as a workbench for real-time nanoparticle characterization with single-particle sensitivity and high throughput. We discuss its underlying physical principles and demonstrate its capability for online process analytics and correlative particle analysis based on industrially relevant and complex samples. We elaborate on recent achievements and ongoing developments and discuss challenges and possible directions for future research. Our results prove that the correlative OF2i approach paves the way for a broad range of applications and opens up new avenues in both industry and research.