Microfluidics has brought diverse advantages to chemical processes, allowing higher control of reactions and economy of reagents and energy. Low temperature co-fired ceramics (LTCC) have additional advantages as material for fabrication of microfluidic devices, such as high compatibility with chemical reagents with typical average surface roughness of 0.3154 μm, easy scaling, and microfabrication. The conjugation of LTCC technology with microfluidics allows the development of micrometric-sized channels and reactors exploiting the advantages of fast and controlled mixing and heat transfer processes, essential for the synthesis and surface functionalization of nanoparticles. Since the chemical process area is evolving toward miniaturization and continuous flow processing, we verify that microfluidic devices based on LTCC technology have a relevant role in implementing several chemical processes. The present work reviews various LTCC microfluidic devices, developed in our laboratory, applied to chemical process miniaturization, with different geometries to implement processes such as ionic gelation, emulsification, nanoprecipitation, solvent extraction, nanoparticle synthesis and functionalization, and emulsion-diffusion/solvent extraction process. All fabricated microfluidics structures can operate in a flow range of mL/min, indicating that LTCC technology provides a means to enhance micro- and nanoparticle production yield.
Nanoprecipitation is a nanonization technique used for nanoparticle generation. Several fields, like pharmacology and fine chemistry, make use of such technique. Typically are used a bulky batch mechanical processes rendering high polydispersity index of generated nanoparticles, poorly particle size reproducibility and energy wasting.
LTCC-based microsystem technologies allow the implementation of different unitary operations for chemical process, making it an enabling technology for the miniaturization of chemical processes. In fact, recently LTCC microfluidic reactors have been used to produce micro and nanoparticles with excellent control of size distribution and morphology.
The present work provides a report on the performance of a 3D LTCC flow focusing Microfluidic device designed to fabricate polymeric nanocapsules for Hydrocortisone drug encapsulation, using nanoprecipitation route. Monodisperse Hydrocortisone nanocapsules were obtained with sizes (Tp) from 188.9 nm to 459.1 nm with polydispersity index (PDI) from 0.102 to 0.235.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.