Table 1.

Parameters used to characterization of nanostructures

Parameter	Technique	Principle	Importance
Size and polydispersity index	Laser diffraction (LD)	Light interaction	Ensure that particle exclusively on the nanometer scale was achieved (Lobato et al. 2013)
	Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET)	Adsorption	Allow the evaluation of surface area utilizing pore structure analysis (Akbari et al. 2011)
	X-ray diffraction peak broadening analysis (DPBA)	X-ray	This method is capable of yielding the crystallite size distribution (Akbari et al. 2011)
	Dynamic light scattering (DLS)	Light interaction	Allow the description of particle size distribution and destabilization phenomena (Venturini et al. 2011)
Morphology	Scanning electron microscopy (SEM)	Microcopy	Allow to obtention of information regarding to structure, wall thickness estimative and polymer porosity (Burghardt and Droleskey 2005)
	Transmission electron microscopy (TEM)	Microscopy
	Atomic force microscopy (AFM)	Microscopy	It is more appropriate for surface analysis (Gaumet et al. 2008)
Zeta potential	Zeta potential analysis (ζ)	Electrophoresis mobility	Determine particle stability in suspension, macromolecule and material surface (Honary and Zahir 2013; Win and Feng 2005)
Loading capacity	Ultrafiltration	Particle size	Reduce the quantity of carrier required for the administration to the target site (Lim et al. 2013)
	Tangential filtration
	Ultracentrifugation	Density
Encapsulation efficiency	Ultracentrifugation	Density	Allow to evaluate the efficiency of the nanoformulations to encapsulate compounds and to quantify the compounds administered to the target size (Li et al. 2016)
	Ultrafiltration	Particle size
	Dialyses method	Particle size
Release profile	Sample and Separate (SS)	Diffusion	Provide information concerning the dosage form used to assess product safety and efficacy (D’Souza 2014)
	Continuous flow (CF)
	Dialysis method (DM)	Physical separation