Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Colloids Surf B Biointerfaces. 2011 Oct 15;87(2):361-8. doi: 10.1016/j.colsurfb.2011.05.040. Epub 2011 May 27.
Hydrodynamic flow focusing is a seminal, easy-to-use technology for micro- and nanodroplet generation. It is characterized by the co-axial focusing of two (or more) immiscible liquid streams forced through a small orifice. In this method, the outer continuous phase has a much higher flow velocity than the inner disperse phase. While passing through the orifice, the prevailing pressure drop and shear stress force the inner phase to break up into uniform droplets. Using a biodegradable poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) polymer solution as the disperse phase, monodisperse and user-defined polymer micro- and nanospheres can be generated. Here we present a consecutive parameter study of hydrodynamic flow focusing to study the effect of chemical and physical parameters that effect the dispersity of the droplets generated in the 1-5 μm range. The parameter study shows the applicability and challenges of hydrodynamic flow focusing in the preparation of biodegradable microspheres. Applications for microspheres made with this method can be found in the medical, pharmaceutical and technical fields.
水动力流聚焦是一种开创性的、易于使用的微纳滴生成技术。它的特点是同轴聚焦两种（或更多）不相容的液体流，通过一个小孔强制输送。在这种方法中，外连续相的流速远高于内分散相。当通过小孔时，占主导地位的压降和剪切应力迫使内相破裂成均匀的液滴。使用可生物降解的聚（乳酸-共-乙醇酸）（PLGA）聚合物溶液作为分散相，可以生成单分散和用户定义的聚合物微球和纳米球。在这里，我们进行了一系列水动力流聚焦的参数研究，以研究影响 1-5μm 范围内生成的液滴分散性的化学和物理参数的影响。该参数研究表明了水动力流聚焦在制备可生物降解微球方面的适用性和挑战。使用这种方法制备的微球可应用于医疗、制药和技术领域。
