Analytical Methods to Characterize and Purify Polymeric Nanoparticles

Table 2

Summary of the main advantages and disadvantages of spectroscopic techniques.

Technique	Use	Advantages	Disadvantages	References
Fourier transformed infrared (FTIR)	Chemical composition	Fast and inexpensive	Complicated sample preparation	Alben and Fiamingo [27]; Pretsch 2003; Sapsford et al. [9]; Lin et al. [5]
		Characteristic of each material	Interference of water
		Possible quantification	Relatively low sensitivity
			Requires dried samples
			Destructive
UV-Vis	Quantification of concentration	Cost effective	Interference between materials	Sapsford et al. [9]; Lin et al. 2014 [5]
	Size and shape determination	Simple and fast
		Useful for a variety of compounds
Fluorimetry	Quantitative fluorescence determination	High sensitivity Compound specificity	Limited to fluorescent compounds	Lakowicz [28]
			Limited fluorescence lifetime