Particle tracking can be used to study soft matter systems with as little equipment as just an optical microscope and camera. Researchers have expanded the capabilities of particle tracking down to the nanoscale, with biomedical applications such as drug delivery.
Rose et al. published a tutorial on how to track nanoparticles in soft matter. The tutorial describes up-to-date particle tracking instrumentation and the optimal setup for obtaining clear images. It also compares techniques used to characterize probe mobility.
“Particle tracking is uniquely suited to probe the local environment of the material, explore mechanical structures with mesoscopic length scales, and measure properties that may not be accurately represented by the bulk characterization of the material,” said author Katie Rose.
The authors also mentioned potential false signals that may arise while studying particle trajectories and describe ways to suppress these signals using specific imaging and tracking techniques during different stages.
“Creating optimized images is highly system dependent, therefore, understanding the contributions to image quality and sources of noise is critical for producing high quality images,” said author Mehdi Molaei.
They expect these techniques to continue to evolve as nanoprobes are improved and new imaging software is developed and shared between scientific communities.
“The optical imaging methods used in biophysics are advanced in terms of spatial and temporal resolution, compared to those typically used by the soft matter community,” said author Russell Composto. “One interesting potential advancement is using machine learning in particle tracking, which could remove human bias from data analysis.”
Source: “Particle tracking of nanoparticles in soft matter,” by Katie Rose, Mehdi Molaei, Michael J. Boyle, Daeyeon Lee, John C. Crocker, and Russell J. Composto, Journal of Applied Physics (2020). The article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0003322.
