Niosome as an Effective Nanoscale Solution for the Treatment of Microbial Infections

Table 3

An overview of characterization techniques for niosomes.

Characteristic	Applied instrumentation	Additional notes	Ref.
Particle size	DLS, SEM, FE-SEM, TEM	—	[127, 128]
Zeta potential	DLS, Zetasizer	Zeta potentials higher than +30 mV and less than -30 mV are acceptable as a stable state of the niosomes	[82, 116, 127]
Morphology	SEM, FE-SEM, TEM, FF-TEM, cryo-TEM, NS-TEM, AFM, STM	—	[129–133]
Number of bilayers	AFM, SEM, TEM, NMR, SAXS, EDX, fluorescence polarization	—	[96, 130]
Vesicle stability	Microscopic techniques, DLS	Determining the EE % of niosomes at regular intervals helps to assess their stability	[134]
Structure and chemical bonding patterns	FTIR	—	[135, 136]

Abbreviations: DLS, dynamic light scattering; SEM, scanning electron microscopy; FE-SEM, field emission scanning electron microscopy; TEM, transmission electron microscopy; FF-TEM, freeze-fracture replication-electron microscopy; cryo-TEM, cryo transmission electron microscopy; NS-TEM, negative staining transmission electron microscopy; AFM, atomic force microscopy; STM, scanning tunneling microscopy; NMR, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy; SAXS, small angle X-ray scattering; EDX, energy dispersive X-ray diffraction; FTIR, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy.