Evaluation of Continuous Flow Nanosphere Formation by Controlled Microfluidic Transport

Abstract

Improved size monodispersity of populations of polymer nanospheres is of enormous interest in the fields of nanotechnology and nanomedicine. As such, the knowledge of exact experimental conditions for precise production of nanospheres is needed for nonaqueous systems. This work presents the use of controlled microfluidic transport methods to study the experimental parameters for fabricating nanoparticles utilizing phase inversion. We report two microfluidic methods for forming polymer nanospheres in small batches to determine the formation conditions. These conditions were then implemented to perform higher throughput formation of polymer nanospheres of the desired size. The controlled microfluidic environment in the laminar flow regime produces improved size monodispersity, decreased average diameter, and affords a greater degree of control over the nanosphere size distribution without adding surfactants or additional solvents. Experiments show a nonlinear trend toward decreasing size with decreasing polymer concentration and a linear trend toward decreasing size with increasing flow rate indicating time-course-dependent nucleation and growth mechanism of formation for the resultant nanosphere population within the range of conditions tested.