Author: Xuan Luo
Luo, Xuan, 2019 Fabrication of Nano-materials Using Vortex Fluidic Devices and Their Biomedical Applications, Flinders University, College of Medicine and Public Health
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Over the last few decades, there has been a considerable interest in the area of developing various particulate systems with diameters varying from nanometers to micrometers for materials ranging from semicondutors, metals to polymers. These nano and microsized materials could play significant roles in many applications such as biosensors, in vivo imaging, cancer theranostics, in vitro diagnosis and drug delivery. In each of these fields, the physicochemical properties of particles can have significant influences on their applications and efficacy. An efficient, controllable, scalable and reproducible technique for the synthesis of micro-/nanoparticles with well-defined properties is ideal.
Microfluidic technology provides an alternative strategy for the synthesis of various materials with precise control over size, shape and homogeneity. The focus of my PhD is to create a paradigm shift in nanoscience by employing a novel thin film intensified process - vortex fluidic device (VFD) invented in our laboratory towards well-controlled fabrication and manipulation of nanostructures from various raw materials such as carbon, metal, polymer and protein. Carbon nanodots produced using VFD have a relatively narrow size distribution, between 3 to 13 nm, and have high colloidal stability and are non-toxic up to 200 μg/mL. We have established that this process is also effective in forming superparamagnetic magnetite nanoparticles of spheroidal or hexagonal shapes with a narrow size distribution in a one- step continuous flow process. The VFD could also be applied to manipulate polyethylenimine-based nanoparticles with tunable fluorescence, macroporous bovine serum albumin-based nanospheres or nanopockets and even to be used as a protein purification tool for crude microalgae extracts. This project outcomes present a significant opportunity to explore the potential application of the VFD in generating high-value biomedical materials in a more benign way in filling this gap of research toward many industrial applications.
Keywords: Vortex fluidic device, VFD, nanoparticle, nanomaterial, biomedical
Subject: Medical Biotechnology thesis
Thesis type: Doctor of Philosophy
Completed: 2019
School: College of Medicine and Public Health
Supervisor: Prof. Wei Zhang