Core/Shell Nanocomposites Produced by Superfast Sequential Microfluidic Nanoprecipitation
: Dongfei Liu, Hongbo Zhang, Salvatore Cito, Jin Fan, Ermei Mäkilä, Jamo Salonen, Jouni Hirvonen, Tiina M. Sikanen, David A. Weitz, Helder A. Santos
Publisher: AMER CHEMICAL SOC
: 2017
: Nano Letters
: NANO LETTERS
: NANO LETT
: 17
: 2
: 606
: 614
: 9
: 1530-6984
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.6b03251
Although a number of techniques exist for generating structured organic nanocomposites, it is still challenging to fabricate them in a controllable, yet universal and scalable manner. In this work, a microfluidic platform, exploiting superfast (milliseconds) time intervals between sequential nanoprecipitation processes, has been developed for high-throughput production of structured core/shell nanocomposites. The extremely short time interval between the sequential nanoprecipitation processes, facilitated by the multiplexed microfluidic design, allows us to solve the instability issues of nanocomposite cores without using any stabilizers. Beyond high throughput production rate (similar to 700 g/day on a single device), the generated core/shell nanocomposites harness the inherent ultrahigh drug loading degree and enhanced payload dissolution kinetics of drug nanocrystals and the controlled drug release from polymer-based nanopartides.