Application Note
Application of Microfluidic Microparticle Synthesis
Microparticles, especially polymer microparticles, have shown great potential for biomedical applications in a variety of fields such as pharmaceutical industries like drug delivery, and biosensing because of its excellent properties.
Microparticle synthesis by microfluidic technology presents advantages over the conventional batch synthesis processes due to its capacity in better uniformity in size and shape. For example, in the drug delivery field, nanoparticles can be synthesized from block copolymers such as PLGA, which are the most commonly used biodegradable materials for the delivery of both hydrophilic and hydrophobic compounds.
Principle of Particle Synthesis:
PreciGenome Droplet Generation System is widely used for microparticle synthesis. It employs microfluidic device for controlled and tunable polymer particles’ production. The schematic below illustrates the device with junction in focused-flow geometry designed for particles’ synthesis.
Microparticle Synthesis:
Schematic illustration of enlarged junction, controlled break-up droplet at the orifice. The flow through the orifice enables a controlled droplets break-up, which is required for yielding monodisperse micro-emulsions
System Benefits:
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Compact and portable design
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Precise and accurate pressure/flow output
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Fast response time
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Controllable liquid flow rate output with external liquid flow sensors
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Standard connection. Easy connect to other components
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OEM service and module integration available
High Performance & Efficiency
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Tunable size
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Low PDI
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High encapsulation efficiency
Open Platform
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Reagents
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Microfludic chips
Scalable Throughput
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Small volume test
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High volume production
Simple Operation
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Easy setup
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Intuitive UI w. touchscreen
Cost effective
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Affordable configurations
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Low cost solutions
Advantages of Microfluidic Method:
Microfluidic Chips for Synthesis:
PreciGenome offers a variety of microfluidic chips in different materials to meet most of our customers' application requirements for microparticles synthesis. Droplet generation chips are the most frequently used for microparticles synthesis.
Three types of materials, including polymers, glass and silicon, are commonly used to fabricate microfluidic chips. Material of the chip is selected depending on the application requirements, including chip design, types of solvent or reagent used for experiment, needs of the application, budget, and fabrication time,etc.
Droplet Generation Chip
Microparticle Synthesis Applications:
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Drug Delivery (PLGA, Lipid & Liposome)
Droplet microfluidics enables useful platforms for drug delivery vehicles and drug molecules as novel functional materials. Because of uniform size, monodisperse size distribution, and desired properties, droplet microfluidics demonstrates promising potential for the production of complex drug systems.
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Chemical synthesis
Droplet-based microfluidics has become an important method for chemical synthesis. Droplets are able to act as individual reactions, which are free from contamination from outside. Meanwhile, it also offers benefits of high throughput, small reagent volumes, low cost, portability, a high degree of synthetic control, rapid reaction, etc.
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Microparticle Synthesis
Advanced particles and particle-based materials, such as polymer particles, microcapsules, nanocrystals, and photonic crystal beads can be synthesized by the droplet generation system. The droplet generation system is also able to synthesize nanoparticles, like colloidal CdS and CdS/CdSe core-shell nanoparticles.
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Gel Particle Synthesis
In the last decade, the gel particles (hydrogels, microgels, and nanogels) has been an area of interest for many researchers and industries. Because of high throughput, mono-dispersity of particles, and low cost, droplet-based microfluidic systems have been widely used for synthesizing these hydrogel particles.
Related Applications Notes:
PLGA Droplet-based Microparticle Synthesis
PLGA Microparticles are produced via template droplets that turn into microparticles by solvent evaporation. Easy to generate PLGA droplets.
