Nanoparticle Preparation Using Microfluidics for Drug Delivery

Abstract

Nanoparticles (NPs) are widely used in biomedical, optical, catalytic and engineering sensing fields due to their unique characteristics such as large surface volume ratio and small size. The traditional process of producing nanoparticles suffers from the difficulties in size control, high batch-to-batch variations and poor feasibility of industrial amplification. Recently, owing to its good controllability and reproducibility in fluid mixing, microfluidic technology has been utilized to overcome the limitations of conventional methods and accelerate the industrial translation of nanoparticles. This article reviewed three microfluidic methods of preparing nanoparticles: microfluidics nanoprecipitation, microfluidic-based emulsion method and self-assembly method from the perspectives of principles and characteristics, and the prepared nanoparticle. In particularly, nanoparticle prepared with microfluidics for drug delivery was intensively reviewed.