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Dielectric nanoparticles

Polarizability reveals identity

Nature Materials volume 11, pages 748–749 (2012)Cite this article

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Improvements in electrostatic force microscopy now make it possible to measure the dielectric constant of isolated low-polarizable nanoparticles and viruses, thus enabling the label-free identification of dielectric nanomaterials of similar morphology.

There has been much discussion and controversy regarding the definition of the dielectric constant — the ability of a macroscopic material to be polarized by an electric field — for nanoparticles and macromolecules1. And yet, quantitative experimental data on the inherent dielectric properties of low-polarizable nanoparticles remains scarce because of difficulties in reaching the sufficient sensitivity needed to measure ultraweak polarization signals. Writing in Nature Materials, Laura Fumagalli and co-workers2 now show that electrostatic force microscopy (EFM) with sub-piconewton resolution is able to resolve, in air, the dielectric constants of nanoparticles with radii as small as 10 nm, thus permitting the label-free identification of dielectric nanoparticles with a similar morphology but different materials. The researchers also show that discrimination between desiccated individual empty and DNA-containing virus capsids is possible, and provide the dielectric properties of the core of a dry virus, presumably double-stranded DNA, which have so far remained inaccessible by other well-established techniques.

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Figure 1: Measuring the dielectric properties of small particles.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Condensed Matter Physics Department and Centro de Investigación en Física de la Materia Condensada, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, 28049, Spain

    Enrique Sahagún & Juan José Sáenz

  2. Donostia International Physics Center, Donostia-San Sebastián, 20018, Spain

    Juan José Sáenz

Authors
  1. Enrique Sahagún
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  2. Juan José Sáenz
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Correspondence to Juan José Sáenz.

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Sahagún, E., Sáenz, J. Polarizability reveals identity. Nature Mater 11, 748–749 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat3410

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