Brownian motion of poly(divinylbenzene) nanoparticles in water

Understanding the motion of nanoparticles in liquid is of practical importance for drug delivery and fluid flow in nanofluidic systems. In this work, we use a nanoparticle tracking analyzer to investigate the Brownian motion of polydivinylbenzene (PDVB) nanoparticles in water and a video camera to record the aggregation of PDVB aggregates on the water surface. Using water as the liquid medium precludes the possible complex interaction between the liquid medium and the PDVB nanoparticles, which can possibly alter the random characteristics of the motion of the PDVB nanoparticles. The diffusivity of the PDVB nanoparticles determined from the mean square displacements of the PDVB nanoparticles has the same activation energy as that for the intrinsic viscosity of the corresponding aqueous suspension of the PDVB nanoparticles. The correlation between the diffusivity for the motion of the PDVB nanoparticles in water and the intrinsic viscosity of the corresponding aqueous suspension follows the Stokes–Einstein relation. The capillary effect and the interaction between PDVB aggregates and the liquid media enable the aggregation of the PDVB aggregates on the water surface, which follows the first-order reaction with activation energy larger than that for the random motion of the PDVB nanoparticles in water.