The establishment of verifiably safe nanotechnology requires the development of assessment tools to identify hazardous nanomaterial properties that could be modified to improve nanomaterial safety. While there is a lot of debate of what constitutes appropriate safety screening methods, one approach is to use the assessment of cellular injury pathways to collect knowledge about hazardous material properties that could lead to harm to humans and the environment. We demonstrate the use of a multi-parameter cytotoxicity assay that evaluates toxic oxidative stress to compare the effects of titanium dioxide (TiO2), cerium oxide (CeO2) and zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles in bronchial epithelial and macrophage cell lines. The nanoparticles were chosen based on their volume of production and likelihood of spread to the environment. Among the materials, dissolution of ZnO nanoparticles and Zn2+ release were capable of ROS generation and activation of an integrated cytotoxic pathway that includes intracellular calcium flux, mitochondrial depolarization, and plasma membrane leakage. These responses were chosen based on the compatibility of the fluorescent dyes that contemporaneously assess their response characteristics by a semi-automated epifluorescence procedure. Purposeful reduction of ZnO cytotoxicity was achieved by iron doping, which changed the material matrix to slow Zn2+ release. In summary, we demonstrate the utility of a rapid throughput, integrated biological oxidative stress response pathway to perform hazard ranking of a small batch of metal oxide nanoparticles, in addition to showing how this assay can be used to improve nanosafety by decreasing ZnO dissolution through Fe doping.

By focusing electrons on probes with a diameter of 50 pm, aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) is currently crossing the border to probing subatomic details. A major challenge is the measurement of atomic electric fields using differential phase contrast (DPC) microscopy, traditionally exploiting the concept of a field-induced shift of diffraction patterns. Here we present a simplified quantum theoretical interpretation of DPC. This enables us to calculate the momentum transferred to the STEM probe from diffracted intensities recorded on a pixel array instead of conventional segmented bright-field detectors. The methodical development yielding atomic electric field, charge and electron density is performed using simulations for binary GaN as an ideal model system. We then present a detailed experimental study of SrTiO3 yielding atomic electric fields, validated by comprehensive simulations. With this interpretation and upgraded instrumentation, STEM is capable of quantifying atomic electric fields and high-contrast imaging of light atoms.

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We report a method to reliably count the number of atoms from high-angle annular dark field scanning transmission electron microscopy images. A model-based analysis of the experimental images is used to measure scattering cross sections at the atomic level. The high sensitivity of these measurements in combination with a thorough statistical analysis enables us to count atoms with single-atom sensitivity. The validity of the results is confirmed by means of detailed image simulations. We will show that the method can be applied to nanocrystals of arbitrary shape, size, and atom type without the need for a priori knowledge about the atomic structure.

Entropic effects counteract the topological protection of magnetic skyrmions, leading to faster decay rates than expected.