I will be using the M220 or E210 Covaris sonicator. Any insight would be greatly appreciated! I will be sonicating 1 mg of carbon nanoparticles in 0.1 mL of water and then later with added borate buffer.
The answer strongly depends on the sort of nanoparticles. What do you want to obtain? The suspension of your particles in water?
- Some carbon nanostructures are sensible to sonication and it is possible to destroy them by the treatment. I have seen this effect for long carbon nanofibers. Examine your samples before and after sonication.
- Usually, a suspension is unstable and the particles will be precipitated after few minutes or hours (it depends on the particles properties) after sonication.
Thanks for your reply! My goal is to obtain carbon nanoparticles that I can attach my antibody to through non-covalent bonding. In order for this to happen, I need to suspend the particles in water beforehand. I have chosen this concentration based on a protocol that I am using: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3015178/