William G. Lowrie Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The Ohio State University, 151 W. Woodruff Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, USA.
William G. Lowrie Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The Ohio State University, 151 W. Woodruff Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, USA; Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Ohio State University, 1080 Carmack Rd., Columbus, OH 43210, USA.
J Colloid Interface Sci. 2018 Feb 15;512:411-418. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2017.10.087. Epub 2017 Oct 25.
Elongated micelles may be preferred over spherical because of their increased loading capacity, differential mass transport and biodistribution. Although morphological transitions of block co-polymer (BCP) micelles have been extensively investigated in batch systems, research on continuous or semi-continuous scalable approaches such as flash nanoprecipitation and coaxial electrospray-enabled interfacial instability (Aero-IS) have primarily focused on producing spherical micelles. This paper investigates whether process changes intended to increase micelle production via Aero-IS also induce morphological transitions.
BCP micelles were synthesized from carboxylated polystyrene-block-poly(ethylene oxide) (PS-b-PEO) (PS 9.5 kDa:PEO 18.0 kDa) using Aero-IS. Volumetric flowrates, polymer concentrations, and emulsion temperature were varied to investigate their effect on the micelle production rate and resulting micelle structure, including transitions to worm-like micelles.
These findings report the first worm-like micelles formed via a scalable, interfacial instability approach. The morphological transitions obtained by increasing polymer concentration occurred at lower nominal values than in corresponding batch processes. Optimizing operating conditions also led to a 12-fold increase in micelle production rates over prior electrospray reports (Duong, 2014). Thus, the Aero-IS approach holds promise for scalable nanomanufacturing of worm-like micelles, potentially enabling applications in drug delivery, imaging, diagnostics, and separations.
由于长胶束具有更高的载药量、不同的质量传递和生物分布，因此可能优于球形胶束。尽管在批处理系统中已经广泛研究了嵌段共聚物（BCP）胶束的形态转变，但关于连续或半连续可扩展方法（如闪蒸纳米沉淀和同轴电喷雾实现的界面不稳定性（Aero-IS））的研究主要集中在生产球形胶束上。本文研究了旨在通过 Aero-IS 增加胶束产量的工艺变化是否也会诱导形态转变。
使用 Aero-IS 从羧基化聚苯乙烯嵌段聚（氧化乙烯）（PS-b-PEO）（PS 9.5 kDa：PEO 18.0 kDa）合成 BCP 胶束。改变体积流速、聚合物浓度和乳液温度，以研究它们对胶束生产速率和所得胶束结构（包括向蠕虫状胶束的转变）的影响。
这些发现报告了首次通过可扩展的界面不稳定性方法形成的蠕虫状胶束。通过增加聚合物浓度获得的形态转变发生在比相应的批处理过程更低的标称值。优化操作条件还使胶束生产速率比以前的电喷雾报告（Duong，2014）提高了 12 倍。因此，Aero-IS 方法有望实现可扩展的蠕虫状胶束纳米制造，可能在药物输送、成像、诊断和分离方面具有应用前景。
