TY - JOUR A1 - Abram, Sarah-Luise A1 - Mrkwitschka, Paul A1 - Thünemann, Andreas A1 - Radnik, Jörg A1 - Häusler, I. A1 - Bresch, Harald A1 - Hodoroaba, Vasile-Dan A1 - Resch-Genger, Ute T1 - Iron Oxide Nanocubes as a New Certified Reference Material for Nanoparticle Size Measurements JF - Analytical chemistry N2 - The rational design and increasing industrial use of nanomaterials require a reliable characterization of their physicochemical key properties like size, size distribution, shape, and surface chemistry. This calls for nanoscale reference materials (nanoRMs) for the validation and standardization of commonly used characterization methods closely matching real-world nonspherical nano-objects. This encouraged us to develop a nonspherical nanoRM of very small size consisting of 8 nm iron oxide nanocubes (BAM-N012) to complement spherical gold, silica, and polymer nanoRMs. In the following, the development and production of this nanoRM are highlighted including the characterization by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) as complementary methods for size and shape parameters, homogeneity and stability studies, and calculation of a complete uncertainty budget of the size features. The determination of the nanocubes’ edge length by TEM and SAXS allows a method comparison. In addition, SAXS measurements can also provide the mean particle number density and the mass concentration. The certified size parameters, area equivalent circular diameter and square edge length, determined by TEM with a relative expanded uncertainty below 9%, are metrologically traceable to a natural constant for length, the very precisely known (111) lattice spacing of silicon. Cubic BAM-N012 qualifies as a certified nanoRM for estimating the precision and trueness, validation, and quality assurance of particle size and shape measurements with electron microscopy and SAXS as well as other sizing methods suitable for nanomaterials. The production of this new iron oxide nanocube RM presents an important achievement for the nanomaterial community, nanomaterial manufacturers, and regulators. KW - Certification KW - SAXS KW - Homogeneity KW - Nano KW - Particle KW - Iron oxide KW - Quality assurance KW - Reference material KW - Size KW - Electron microscopy KW - Stability KW - Shape PY - 2023 DO - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.analchem.3c00749 SN - 0003-2700 VL - 95 IS - 33 SP - 12223 EP - 12231 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Columbus, Ohio AN - OPUS4-58176 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Arinchtein, A. A1 - Schnack, R. A1 - Kraffert, K. A1 - Radnik, Jörg A1 - Dietrich, P. A1 - Sachse, René A1 - Krähnert, R. T1 - Role of Water in Phase Transformations and Crystallization of Ferrihydrite and Hematite JF - ACS Applied Materials and Interface N2 - The oxides, hydroxides, and oxo-hydroxides of iron belong to the most abundant materials on earth. They also feature a wide range of practical applications. In many environments, they can undergo facile phase transformations and crystallization processes. Water appears to play a critical role in many of these processes. Despite numerous attempts, the role of water has not been fully revealed yet. We present a new approach to study the influence of water in the crystallization and phase transformations of iron oxides. The approach employs model-type iron oxide films that comprise a defined homogeneous nanostructure. The films are exposed to air containing different amounts of water reaching up to pressures of 10 bar. Ex situ analysis via scanning electron microscopy, Transmission electron microscopy, selected area electron diffraction, and X-ray diffraction is combined with operando near-ambient pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy to follow water-induced changes in hematite nd ferrihydrite. Water proves to be critical for the nucleation of ematite domains in ferrihydrite, the resulting crystallite orientation, and the underlying crystallization mechanism. KW - Iron oxide KW - Ferrihydrite KW - Hematite KW - Water KW - NAP-XPS KW - High pressure PY - 2020 DO - https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.0c05253 VL - 12 SP - 38714 EP - 38722 PB - ACS Publication AN - OPUS4-51201 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Kabelitz, Anke A1 - Emmerling, Franziska A1 - de Oliveira Guilherme Buzanich, Ana A1 - Kraehnert, R. A1 - Kraffert, K. A1 - Schmack, R. T1 - In-situ characterisation of nucleation, growth, crystallisation and dissolution of nanoscaled iron oxides N2 - We present the synthesis of four mesoporous templated iron oxides: Ferrihydrite, Hematite, Maghemite, Magnetite/Maghemite and the influence of water on the crystallization mechanism and the kinetics. The absence of water stabilize the ferrihydrite structure. By monitoring the dissolution in situ by using a QCMB and ex situ microscopy we got details in the dissolution mechanism of ferrihydrite. T2 - Final Meeting of the CRC 1109 & Edith Flanigen Award Ceremony 2018 CY - Berlin, Germany DA - 10.10.2018 KW - Mesoporous KW - Iron oxide KW - Mechanism PY - 2018 AN - OPUS4-47010 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Mrkwitschka, Paul A1 - Abram, Sarah-Luise A1 - Thünemann, Andreas A1 - Rühle, Bastian A1 - Radnik, Jörg A1 - Bresch, Harald A1 - Resch-Genger, Ute A1 - Hodoroaba, Vasile-Dan T1 - The Role of Electron Microscopy in the Development of Monodisperse Cubic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles as Certified Reference Material for Size and Shape JF - Microscopy and Microanalysis N2 - BAM is currently building up a platform of novel nanoRMs relying on iron oxide nanoparticles of different shape, size and surface chemistry. Iron oxide was chosen as a core material because of its relevance to the material and life sciences. As a first candidate of this series, we present cubic iron oxide nanoparticles with a nominal edge length of 8 nm. These particles were synthesized by thermal decomposition of iron oleate in high boiling organic solvents adapting well-known literature procedures. After dilution to a concentration suitable for electron microscopy (TEM and SEM) as well as for small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) measurements, the candidate nanoRM was bottled and assessed for homogeneity and stability by both methods following the guidelines of ISO 17034 and ISO Guide 35. The particle sizes obtained by both STEM-in-SEM and TEM are in excellent agreement with a minimum Feret of 8.3 nm ± 0.7 nm. The aspect ratio (AR) of the iron oxide cubes were extracted from the images as the ratio of minimum Feret to Feret resulting in an AR of 1.18 for TEM to 1.25 for SEM. Alternatively, a rectangular bounding box was fitted originating from the minimum Feret and the longest distance through the particle in perpendicular direction. This led to AR values of 1.05 for TEM and 1.12 for SEM, respectively. The results confirm the almost ideal cubic shape. KW - Reference nanoparticles KW - Iron oxide KW - Cubical shape KW - Electron microscopy KW - SAXS KW - Nano CRM KW - Size PY - 2022 DO - https://doi.org/10.1017/S1431927622003610 SN - 1435-8115 VL - 28 IS - Suppl. 1 SP - 802 EP - 805 PB - Cambridge University Press AN - OPUS4-55599 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Reimann, C. A1 - Brangsch, J. A1 - Kaufmann, Jan Ole A1 - Adams, L. C. A1 - Onthank, D. C. A1 - Thöne-Reineke, C. A1 - Robinson, S. P. A1 - Hamm, B. A1 - Botnar, R. M. A1 - Makowski, M. R. T1 - Dual-probe molecular MRI for the in vivo characterization of atherosclerosis in a mouse model: Simultaneous assessment of plaque inflammation and extracellular matrix remodeling JF - Scientific Reports N2 - Molecular MRI is a promising in-vivo modality to detect and quantify morphological and molecular vessel-wall changes in atherosclerosis. The combination of different molecular biomarkers may improve the risk stratification of patients. This study aimed to investigate the feasibility of simultaneous visualization and quantification of plaque-burden and inflammatory activity by dual-probe molecular MRI in a mouse-model of progressive atherosclerosis and in response-to-therapy. Homozygous apolipoprotein E knockout mice (ApoE−/−) were fed a high-fat-diet (HFD) for up to four-months prior to MRI of the brachiocephalic-artery. To assess response-to-therapy, a statin was administered for the same duration. MR imaging was performed before and after administration of an elastin-specific gadolinium-based and a macrophage-specific iron-oxide-based probe. Following in-vivo MRI, samples were analyzed using histology, immunohistochemistry, inductively-coupled-mass-spectrometry and laser-inductively-coupled-mass-spectrometry. In atherosclerotic-plaques, intraplaque expression of elastic-fibers and inflammatory activity were not directly linked. While the elastin-specific probe demonstrated the highest accumulation in advanced atherosclerotic-plaques after four-months of HFD, the iron-oxide-based probe showed highest accumulation in early atherosclerotic-plaques after two months of HFD. In-vivo measurements for the elastin and iron-oxide-probe were in good agreement with ex-vivo histopathology (Elastica-van-Giesson stain: y = 298.2 + 5.8, R2 = 0.83, p < 0.05; Perls‘ Prussian-blue-stain: y = 834.1 + 0.67, R2 = 0.88, p < 0.05). Contrast-to-noise-ratio (CNR) measurements of the elastin probe were in good agreement with ICP-MS (y = 0.11x-11.3, R² = 0.73, p < 0.05). Late stage atherosclerotic-plaques displayed the strongest increase in both CNR and gadolinium concentration (p < 0.05). The gadolinium probe did not affect the visualization of the iron-oxide-probe and vice versa. This study demonstrates the feasibility of simultaneous assessment of plaque-burden. KW - Gadolinium KW - Elastin KW - Probe KW - Iron oxide KW - Ferumoxytol PY - 2019 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-497066 DO - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-50100-8 VL - 9 SP - 13827 PB - Springer Nature AN - OPUS4-49706 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schulz, K. A1 - Schmack, R. A1 - Klemm, H. W. A1 - Kabelitz, Anke A1 - Schmidt, T. A1 - Emmerling, Franziska A1 - Kraehnert, R. T1 - Mechanism and kinetics of hematite crystallization in air: Linking bulk and surface models via mesoporous films with defined nanostructure JF - Chemistry of Materials N2 - Iron can form numerous oxides, hydroxides, and oxide−hydroxides. Despite their relevance, many of the transformation processes between these phases are still poorly understood. In particular the crystallization of quasi-amorphous hydroxides and oxide−hydroxides is difficult to assess, since typical diffraction and scattering methods provide only sampleaveraged information about the crystallized phases. We report a new approach for the investigation of the crystallization of oxide−hydroxides. The approach relies on model-type films that comprise a defined homogeneous nanostructure. The nanostructure allows quantitative linking of Information obtained by bulk-averaging diffraction techniques (XRD, SAXS) with locally resolved information, i.e., Domain sizes (SEM, TEM, LEEM) and phase composition (SAED). Using time-resolved imaging and diffraction we deduce mechanism and kinetics for the crystallization of ferrihydrite into hematite. Hematite forms via nucleation of hematite domains and subsequent Domain growth that terminates only upon complete transformation. A Johnson−Mehl−Avrami−Kolmogorov model describes the kinetics over a wide temperature range. The derived understanding enables the first synthesis of ferrihydrite films with ordered mesoporosity and quantitative control over the films’ hematite and ferrihydrite content. KW - Iron oxide KW - Crystallization KW - Mesoporous films KW - Nanostructure PY - 2017 DO - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.6b05185 SN - 0897-4756 SN - 1520-5002 VL - 29 IS - 4 SP - 1724 EP - 1734 AN - OPUS4-39690 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Szczerba, Wojciech A1 - Costo, R. A1 - Veintemillas-Verdaguer, S. A1 - del Puerto Morales, M. A1 - Thünemann, Andreas T1 - SAXS analysis of single- and multi-core iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles JF - Journal of Applied Crystallography N2 - This article reports on the characterization of four superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles stabilized with dimercaptosuccinic acid, which are suitable candidates for reference materials for magnetic properties. Particles p1 and p2 are single-core particles, while p3 and p4 are multi-core particles. Small-angle X-ray scattering analysis reveals a lognormal type of size distribution for the iron oxide cores of the particles. Their mean radii are 6.9 nm (p1), 10.6 nm (p2), 5.5 nm (p3) and 4.1 nm (p4), with narrow relative distribution widths of 0.08, 0.13, 0.08 and 0.12. The cores are arranged as a clustered network in the form of dense mass fractals with a fractal dimension of 2.9 in the multi-core particles p3 and p4, but the cores are well separated from each other by a protecting organic shell. The radii of gyration of the mass fractals are 48 and 44 nm, and each network contains 117 and 186 primary particles, respectively. The radius distributions of the primary particle were confirmed with transmission electron microscopy. All particles contain purely maghemite, as shown by X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy KW - Superparamagnetic nanoparticles KW - Iron oxide KW - Reference materials KW - SAXS KW - Small-angle x-ray scattering KW - XANES KW - X-ray absorption near-edge structure KW - X-ray absorption fine structure PY - 2017 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-395948 DO - https://doi.org/10.1107/S1600576717002370 SN - 1600-5767 VL - 50 IS - Part 2 SP - 481 EP - 488 PB - (IUCr) International Union of Crystallography AN - OPUS4-39594 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -