(256n) Production of Monodisperse Polyacrylamide & Poly (n-isopropyl acryl amide) (PNIPAM) Nanoparticles Using Chemtor Fiber Reactor with High Throughput

Use of microfluidic flow regimes for large scale production of nanoparticles is important in the emerging fields of personalized and targeted drug delivery, fuel cell catalysis, LEDs, environmental remediation of spills, etc. Formulation of droplets with uniform diameters is a challenge which microfluidic devices have been reported to achieve. Thus microfluidics could be used to produce nanoparticles for drug delivery, but the throughput is inherently low. The overall goal of the present research is to scale capillary flows to a high throughput system using a patented Chemtor fiber technology. The fluid mechanics of such environments have been studied as a model system in a microfluidic â??Tâ? junction apparatus for production of polyacrylamide and Poly (n-isopropyl acryl amide) (PNIPAM) nanoparticles. In first partby the laboratoryfiber reactor, monodisperse polyacrylamide nanoparticles with high through-put were produced- 662 gm per day throughput documented. Furthermore, poly acrylamide nanoparticles of 117nm and 107nm were produced at 20⁰ Celsius and 15⁰ Celsius respectively, so variation in size of formed Nano-particles with respect to change in experimental temperature condition recorded. Polyacrylamide nanoparticles produced in a batch process were comparable in terms of size and distribution. In next part PNIPAM nanoparticles with size 39 nm and polydispersity index 0.36 were successfully produced.PNIPAM is thermos-responsive polymer in aqueous solution it demonstrates LCST (lower critical solution temperature). This property of PNIPAM is very valuable in targeted drug delivery field. Particle size distributions were measured using dynamic light scattering analysis.