Open AccessFabrication of tunable, high-molecular-weight polymeric nanoparticles via ultrafast acoustofluidic micromixing
Author(s) -
Shuaiguo Zhao,
PoHsun Huang,
Heying Zhang,
Joseph Rich,
Hunter Bachman,
Jennifer Ye,
Wenfen Zhang,
Chuyi Chen,
Zhemiao Xie,
Zhenhua Tian,
Putong Kang,
Hai Fu,
Tony Jun Huang
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
lab on a chip
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.064
H-Index - 210
eISSN - 1473-0197
pISSN - 1473-0189
DOI - 10.1039/d1lc00265a
Subject(s) - micromixing , microchannel , nanoparticle , fabrication , polymer , nanotechnology , materials science , microfluidics , chemical engineering , composite material , engineering , medicine , alternative medicine , pathology
High-molecular-weight polymeric nanoparticles are critical to increasing the loading efficacy and tuning the release profile of targeted molecules for medical diagnosis, imaging, and therapeutics. Although a number of microfluidic approaches have attained reproducible nanoparticle synthesis, it is still challenging to fabricate nanoparticles from high-molecular-weight polymers in a size and structure-controlled manner. In this work, an acoustofluidic platform is developed to synthesize size-tunable, high-molecular-weight (>45 kDa) poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid)-b-poly(ethylene glycol) (PLGA-PEG) nanoparticles without polymer aggregation by exploiting the characteristics of complete and ultrafast mixing. Moreover, the acoustofluidic approach achieves two features that have not been achieved by existing microfluidic approaches: (1) multi-step (≥2) sequential nanoprecipitation in a single device, and (2) synthesis of core-shell structured PLGA-PEG/lipid nanoparticles with high molecular weights. The developed platform expands microfluidic potential in nanomaterial synthesis, where high-molecular-weight polymers, multiple reagents, or sequential nanoprecipitations are needed.