ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to implement the principles and discipline derived from many decades of research in colloidal biocolloidal and nanoscience into a framework relevant to nanotoxicology, and nanobiology. Nanotechnology has undergone an exponential increase in research and investment over the last couple of decades, with multiple potential applications proposed, in the information technology industry and medicine. The colloidal science world has long known that particles in suspension are not generally in their monodisperse form, that is, not all particles are individually spatially separated from one another, unless considerable efforts are expended to separate them. Nanoparticles at the smaller end of the scale offer very significant challenges in terms of characterization, as they are at the limits of resolution of many of the techniques commonly used to characterize larger, micron-scale particles. Transmission electron microscopy measures the projected image of particles deposited onto an electron-transparent substrate.
