Matthew S Souva1, Gauri M Nabar2, Jessica O Winter3, Barbara E Wyslouzil4. 1. William G. Lowrie Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The Ohio State University, 151 W. Woodruff Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, USA. Electronic address: Souva.1@osu.edu. 2. William G. Lowrie Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The Ohio State University, 151 W. Woodruff Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, USA. Electronic address: Nabar.4@osu.edu. 3. 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. Electronic address: Winter.63@osu.edu. 4. William G. Lowrie Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The Ohio State University, 151 W. Woodruff Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, USA; Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, The Ohio State University, 100 West 18th Ave., Columbus, OH 43210, USA. Electronic address: Wyslouzil.1@osu.edu.
Abstract
HYPOTHESIS: 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. EXPERIMENTS: 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. FINDINGS: 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.
HYPOTHESIS: 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. EXPERIMENTS: 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. FINDINGS: 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.