Rapid and mild purification method for nanoparticles from a dispersed solution using a monolithic silica disk

• A rapid and mild purification method for nanoparticles was developed.
• About 90% of nanoparticles were recovered by centrifuge for 2 min.
• Most of small molecules were captured by a monolith.

A rapid and mild purification method for nanoparticles using the commercially available monolithic silica disk, MonoSpin®, was developed. The nanoparticles were purified from a dispersed solution by filtration with the aid of centrifugation at 2290 × g for 2 min. The purification conditions were rapid, mild, and simple compared with those of the conventional purification methods such as ultracentrifugation, dialysis, size exclusion chromatography, and ultrafiltration. The method was shown to be applicable for the purification of various nanoparticles, regardless of their size (from 21 to 100 nm), composition material (silica, polyethylene glycol, and pegylated liposome), and encapsulated molecule (rhodamine 110 and doxorubicin). It was shown that this method is applicable to the purification of a wide range of nanoparticles in many different fields.