Progress in the development of techniques based on light scattering for single nanoparticle detection

Nanoparticles have recently attracted extensive attention in view of their great potential in biomedicine and bioanalytical ap- plications. Single particle detection via light scattering offers a simple and efficient approach for the size, size distribution, and concentration analysis of nanoparticles. In particular, intrinsic heterogeneity or rare events masked by ensemble averaging can be revealed. However, the sixth power dependence of Rayleigh scattering on particle size makes it very challenging to detect individual nanoparticles of small sizes. This article is intended to provide an overview of recent progress in the development of techniques based on light scattering for the detection of single nanoparticles.