Control of structure and function of block copolymer nanoparticles manufactured in microfluidic reactors: towards drug delivery applications
| dc.contributor.author | Xu, Zheqi | |
| dc.contributor.supervisor | Moffitt, Matthew | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2016-04-26T14:28:08Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2018-03-05T12:22:06Z | |
| dc.date.copyright | 2016 | en_US |
| dc.date.issued | 2016-04-26 | |
| dc.degree.department | Department of Chemistry | |
| dc.degree.level | Master of Science M.Sc. | en_US |
| dc.description.abstract | This thesis includes three studies on related aspects of structure and function control for drug delivery block copolymer nanoparticles manufactured in segmented gas-liquid microfluidic reactors. First, the self-assembly of a series of photoresponsive poly(o-nitrobenzyl acrylate)-b-polydimethylacrylamide copolymers is conducted in the gas-liquid segmented microfluidic reactor at various flow rates. The resulting morphologies are found to be flow-variable and distinct from nanoparticles prepared off-chip by dropwise water addition. Photocleaving of the nanoparticles formed at different flow rates reveal flow-variable photodissociation kinetics. Next, we conduct a direct comparison between a commercially-available single-phase microfluidic mixer and the two-phase, gas-liquid segmented microfluidic reactor used in our group, with respect to nanoparticle formation from a typical block copolymer identified for drug delivery applications, polycaprolactone-b-poly(ethylene oxide). The two-phase chip yields morphologies and core crystallinities that vary with flow rate; however, the same parameters are found to be flow-independent using the single-phase mixer. This study provides the first direct evidence that flow-variable structure control is a unique feature of the two-phase chip design. Finally, we investigate structure and function control for paclitaxel (PAX)-loaded nanoparticles prepared from a series of poly(6-methyl caprolactone-co-ε-caprolactone)-block-poly(ethylene oxide) copolymers with variable 6-methyl caprolactone (MCL) content. For all MCL-containing copolymers, off-chip preparations form nanoparticles with no measurable crystallinity, although PAX loading levels are higher and release rates are slower compared to the copolymer without MCL. Both off-chip and on-chip preparations yield amorphous spheres of similar size from MCL-containing copolymers, although on-chip nanoparticles showed slower release rates, attributed to more homogeneous PAX distribution due to faster mixing. | en_US |
| dc.description.scholarlevel | Graduate | en_US |
| dc.identifier.bibliographicCitation | Z. Xu, B. Yan, J. Riordon, Y. Zhao, D. Sinton and M. G. Moffitt Microfluidic Synthesis of Photoresponsive Spool-Like Block Copolymer Nanoparticles: Flow-Directed Formation and Light-Triggered Dissociation. Chemistry of Materials 2015, 27, 8094. | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/1828/7190 | |
| dc.language | English | eng |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
| dc.rights | Available to the World Wide Web | en_US |
| dc.rights.uri | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/ca/ | * |
| dc.subject | Microfluidics | en_US |
| dc.subject | Drug Delivery | en_US |
| dc.subject | Block Copolymer | en_US |
| dc.subject | Nanoparticles | en_US |
| dc.title | Control of structure and function of block copolymer nanoparticles manufactured in microfluidic reactors: towards drug delivery applications | en_US |
| dc.type | Thesis | en_US |