Hi, I have been using a Q-Sonica Q500 Sonicator to disperse samples on nanocellulose and make emulsions. I have notices black dust like particulates settling out in some samples and on the bottom of tubes after centrifuging. Has anyone had any success in minimizing or eliminating this contamination? If not, are there any good ways to remove it? I've had some success filtering it out using membranes when working with nanoemulsions but for larger nanocellulose particles I'm not sure that this would be effective.
Thank you in advance for any advice,
Josh
Dear Joshua Van Dyke, why not using a bath sonicator instead of the probe one. My Regards
Hi Josh,
If you do not have or can not use an ultrasonic bath, then you can try magnetic separation of the metal nanoparticles (if they are magnetic ones) or coat the zond by some protecive coating e.g. epoxy resin
To minimize, reduce sonication time and power. If this nanocellulose is a powder, it is worthless trying to redisperse it using a tip sonicator or any other sonicator.
Abdelkader BOUAZIZ we do not have a bath sonicator unfortunately
Omar Gonzalez-Ortega it is in liquid but even at a short duration I still get the black contaminants, do you have any experience with this and does it interfere with data such as zeta potential?
The solid you see is from the tip, moreover, the dissolved ions also increase after sonication. Zeta potential must be measured with enough salt concentration (2 mM), higher ionic strength will mask the true zeta potential generated by a charged surface. If you have truly have nanocellulose in suspension, differential centrifugation should do the trick to separate this metallic solid.
The following links maybe useful.
Regards
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11157-023-09675-y
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S135041771730425X
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11356-016-7999-9
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02772240903300139
https://setac.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/etc.2123
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