Determination of particle size and number concentrations in mono-, bi-, and trimodal gold nanoparticle samples: Dataset for Particle Tracking Measurements (PTA / NTA)

Description This dataset comprises Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis (NTA) measurements of well-characterized monomodal gold nanoparticle suspensions and their mixtures. All data were generated within an inter-method comparison study designed to evaluate the performance of four different analysis techniques (DLS, NTA, SEM, spICP-MS) for the characterization and differentiation of nanoparticle size fractions in mixed samples. Samples and Experimental Design The study was carried out using four different AuNP suspensions (“Nanospheres”, polymer-coated, PEG-carboxyl, and “ultra-uniform”). Three suspensions represented particle size standards with nominal diameters of 30 nm, 50 nm, and 100 nm, while the fourth suspension (also 50 nm) served as a particle number concentration standard rather than a particle size standard. Using a four-step experimental design (step1 – monomodal particle number concentration standard, step2 – monomodal particle size standards, step3 – bi- and trimodal number-based mixtures, step4 – bi- and trimodal mass-based mixtures), all monomodal samples as well as eight different bi- and trimodal mixtures were analysed. Dataset Structure The analysis results can be found in the attached Excel-file “GoldNanoparticles_NTA_MonoBiTrimodal.xlsx”. Further information and details about the general methodology, experimental design, sample preparation, technical setup and the data and file overview is documented in the README-section of the excel-file. Corresponding data sets with results obtained by the other three nanoanalytical techniques can be found here: Data publication 1: DLS (https://doi.org/10.25826/Data20260209-100314-0) Data publication 3: SEM (https://doi.org/10.25826/Data20260209-093658-0) Data publication 4: spICP-MS (https://doi.org/10.25826/Data20260202-153839-0) The overall results are summarized in the publication “Determination of particle size and number concentrations in gold nanoparticle mixtures: An inter-method study using four analytical techniques (DLS, NTA, SEM and spICP-MS)” authored by Birgit Hetzer, Alexandra Müller, Ann-Katrin Meinhardt, Volker Gräf and Elke Walz (https://doi.org/10.1039/d6na00161k). Data Reuse and Interoperability The dataset is provided open-access, under a CC BY 4.0 licence, and is fully documented to support reuse, reanalysis, and comparison across laboratories and analytical techniques. Explicit metadata, and method-specific parameters enable interoperability with complementary datasets (e.g. SEM, spICP-MS) and facilitate method development, benchmarking, and validation in nanoparticle size analysis. Intended Use The data are intended for: method development and validation in nanoparticle characterization, benchmarking NTA performance in multimodal samples, interlaboratory comparison studies, and training and evaluation of data analysis workflows.