Zonal Rotor Ultracentrifugation: An Effective Tool for Nanoparticle Separations at Large Scale

DATE:  October 15, 2020

TIME:   8am PDT, 11am EDT

Density gradient centrifugation is an effective method for the isolation and purification of small particles. Hollow rotors capable of hosting density gradients replace the need for centrifuge tubes and therefore allow separations at large scales. So far, zonal rotors have been used for biological separations ranging from the purification of whole cells down to serum proteins. We will demonstrate that the high-resolution separation method opens up exciting perspectives apart from biology, namely in sorting mixtures of synthetic nanoparticles. Loading and unloading, while the rotor is spinning, avoids perturbations during acceleration and deceleration periods, and thus makes a vital contribution to sorting accuracy. Nowadays one can synthesize nanoscale particles in a wide variety of compositions and shapes. A prominent example for this are “colloidal molecules” or, generally speaking, defined assemblies of nanoparticles that can appear in varying aggregation numbers. Fractionation of such multimodal colloids plays an essential role with regard to their organization into hierarchical organized superstructures such as films, mesocrystals and metamaterials. We will show that zonal rotor centrifugation is perfectly suited for getting “colloidal molecules” properly sorted.

Learning Objectives:

1. Insights into supracolloidal assembly.
2. Understanding key principles of density gradient centrifugation.
3. Performing nanoparticle separations using swing-out and zonal rotors.

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