Tunable Resistive Pulse Sensing (TRPS) is a single-particle technique used to measure the size, concentration and zeta potential of particles as they pass through a size-tunable

nanopore A nanopore is a pore of nanometer size. It may, for example, be created by a pore-forming protein or as a hole in synthetic materials such as silicon or graphene. When a nanopore is present in an electrically insulating membrane, it can be used a ...

. The technique adapts the principle of

resistive pulse sensing Resistive pulse sensing (RPS) is the generic, non-commercial term given for the well-developed technology used to detect, and measure the size of, individual particles in fluid. First invented by Wallace H. Coulter in 1953, the RPS technique is the ...

, which monitors current flow through an aperture, combined with the use of tunable nanopore technology, allowing the passage of ionic current and particles to be regulated by adjusting the pore size. Scanning Ion Occlusion Sensing

Technique

Particles crossing a pore are detected one at a time as a transient change in the ionic current flow, which is denoted as a blockade event with its amplitude denoted as the blockade magnitude. As blockade magnitude is proportional to particle size, accurate particle sizing can be achieved after calibration with a known standard. Nanopore-based detection allows particle-by-particle assessment of complex mixtures. Optimization of pore size to particle size, by adjusting the stretch of the pore, can improve measurement accuracy. Through combination with fine-control of pressure TRPS has been used to determine sample concentration and to accurately derive particle electrophoretic mobility & surface charge in addition to particle size information.

Applications

TRPS has been applied in product development by nanotechnology instrument manufacturers Izon Science Ltd in the first commercially available nanopore-based particle characterization systems. These systems have been applied to measure a wide range of biological and synthetic particle types including viruses and nanoparticles. TRPS has been applied in both academic and industrial research fields, including: *

Drug delivery Drug delivery refers to approaches, formulations, manufacturing techniques, storage systems, and technologies involved in transporting a pharmaceutical compound to its target site to achieve a desired therapeutic effect. Principles related to d ...

research * Microvesicle and exosomes *

Virology Virology is the Scientific method, scientific study of biological viruses. It is a subfield of microbiology that focuses on their detection, structure, classification and evolution, their methods of infection and exploitation of host (biology), ...

and

vaccine A vaccine is a biological Dosage form, preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious disease, infectious or cancer, malignant disease. The safety and effectiveness of vaccines has been widely studied and verifie ...

production * Biomedical diagnostics *Industrial research (e.g. paint & dye analysis) *

Microfluidics Microfluidics refers to the behavior, precise control, and manipulation of fluids that are geometrically constrained to a small scale (typically sub-millimeter) at which surface forces dominate volumetric forces. It is a multidisciplinary field tha ...

References

{{reflist, colwidth=30em Nanotechnology Nanoparticles