Potential Application of Nanoparticles as Antipathogens - Advanced Materials for Agriculture, Food and Environmental Safety - page 354

• Transmission electron microscopy: h e morphology of the

nanoparticles can be examined by TEM; ultrathin specimen
with a thickness of about 50nm can be observed.

• Atomic force microscopy (AFM): h e dried i lm of NPs can

be scanned by AFM in tapping mode. From AFM image, the
size of Cu NPs was measured using Neeco'sSPN lab analysis
sot ware.

12.14 Biocompatibility of Nanoparticles

• Biocompatibility refers to the ability of biomaterial to per-
form its desired function with respect to a medical therapy,
without any harmful ef ects in the recipient or benei ciary of
that therapy [42], [47].
• Nanoparticles are somehow permeable to membrane cells
and spread along nerve cells, blood vessels and lymphatic
vasculature in the body. h e NPs selectively accumulate in
dif erent cells and certain cellular structure [48].
• For biomedical application, the NPs enter the body and con-
tact with tissues and cells directly; therefore it is necessary
for exploring their biocompatibility.
• Gold NPs can be readily functionalized with probe mol-
ecules such as antibodies, enzymes and nucleotides. h ese
are important factors to enhance the immune response.
Nanoparticles ot en become entangled or coated with
mucous produced by epithelial cells or extracellular matrix
structure on the apical surface of cells adjacent to the larg-
est cells, reducing the number of nanoparticles that could be
localized at the desired site.
• h e TiO 2 and FeO 3 nanostructured materials are used for
simultaneously improving the antimicrobial properties of
PMMA resin.

12.15 Toxic Ef ects of Nanoparticles

Humans have been exposed to nanoparticles throughout their evolution-
ary phases; however, this exposure has been increased to a great extent in
the past century because of the industrial revolution [96]. Nanoparticles