Microfluidic Continuous Approaches to Produce Magnetic Nanoparticles with Homogeneous Size Distribution

We present a gas-liquid microfluidic system as a reactor to obtain magnetite nanoparticles with an excellent degree of control regarding their crystalline phase, shape and size. Several types of microflow approaches were selected to prevent nanomaterial aggregation and to promote homogenous size distribution. The selected reactor consists of a mixer stage aided by ultrasound waves and a reaction stage using a N2-liquid segmented flow to prevent magnetite oxidation to non-magnetic phases. A milli-fluidic reactor was developed to increase the production rate where a magnetite throughput close to 450 mg/h in a continuous fashion was obtained.




References:
[1] Reddy, L. H.; Arias, J. L.; Nicolas, J.; Couvreur, P. Magnetic
Nanoparticles: Design and Characterization, Toxicity and
Biocompatibility, Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Applications. Chem
Rev 2012, 112, 5818-5878.
[2] Xiao, L.; Li, J.; Brougham, D. F.; Fox, E. K.; Feliu, N.; Bushmelev, A.;
Schmidt, A.; Mertens, N.; Kiessling, F.; Valldor, M.; Fadeel, B.; Mathur,
S. Water-Soluble Superparamagnetic Magnetite Nanoparticles with
Biocompatible Coating for Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Acs
Nano 2011, 5, 6315-6324.
[3] Sebastian, V.; Arruebo, M.; Santamaria, J. Reaction Engineering
Strategies for the Production of Inorganic Nanomaterials. Small 2014,
10, 835-853.
[4] Correa, J. R.; Canetti, D.; Castillo, R.; Llopiz, J. C.; Dufour, J. Influence
of the precipitation pH of magnetite in the oxidation process to
maghemite. Mater Res Bull 2006, 41, 703-713.
[5] Massart, R.; Cabuil, V. Effect of Some Parameters on the Formation of
Colloidal Magnetite in Alkaline-Medium - Yield and Particle-Size
Control. J Chim Phys Pcb 1987, 84, 967-973.
[6] Jovanovic, S.; Spreitzer, M.; Otonicar, M.; Jeon, J. H.; Suvorov, D. pH
control of magnetic properties in precipitation-hydrothermal-derived
CoFe2O4. J Alloy Compd 2014, 589, 271-277.
[7] Verges, M. A.; Costo, R.; Roca, A. G.; Marco, J. F.; Goya, G. F.; Serna,
C. J.; Morales, M. P. Uniform and water stable magnetite nanoparticles
with diameters around the monodomain-multidomain limit. J Phys D
Appl Phys 2008, 41.
[8] Marre, S.; Jensen, K. F. Synthesis of micro and nanostructures in
microfluidic systems. Chem Soc Rev 2010, 39, 1183-1202.
[9] Calatayud, M. P.; Riggio, C.; Raffa, V.; Sanz, B.; Torres, T. E.; Ibarra,
M. R.; Hoskins, C.; Cuschieri, A.; Wang, L.; Pinkernelle, J.; Keilhofff,
G.; Goya, G. F. Neuronal cells loaded with PEI-coated Fe3O4
nanoparticles for magnetically guided nerve regeneration. J Mater Chem
B 2013, 1, 3607-3616.
[10] Iida, H.; Takayanagi, K.; Nakanishi, T.; Osaka, T. Synthesis of Fe3O4
nanoparticles with various sizes and magnetic properties 14 by
controlled hydrolysis. J Colloid Interf Sci 2007, 314, 274-280.
[11] Nagy, K. D.; Shen, B.; Jamison, T. F.; Jensen, K. F. Mixing and
Dispersion in Small-Scale Flow Systems. Org Process Res Dev 2012,
16, 976-981.
[12] Cabeza, V. S.;Kuhn, S.;Kulkarni, A. A.; Jensen, K. F. Size-Controlled
Flow Synthesis of Gold Nanoparticles Using a Segmented Flow
Microfluidic Platform. Langmuir 2012, 28, 7007-7013.
[13] Colfen, H.; Antonietti, M. Mesocrystals: Inorganic superstructures made
by highly parallel crystallization and controlled alignment. Angew Chem
Int Edit 2005, 44, 5576-5591.
[14] Baumgartner, J.; Dey, A.; Bomans, P. H. H.; Le Coadou, C.; Fratzl, P.;
Sommerdijk, N. A. J. M.; Faivre, D. Nucleation and growth of magnetite
from solution. Nat Mater 2013, 12, 310-314.
[15] Gomez, L.; Sebastian, V.; Irusta, S.; Ibarra, A.; Arruebo, M.;
Santamaria, J. Scaled-up production of plasmonic nanoparticles using
microfluidics: from metal precursors to functionalized and sterilized
nanoparticles. Lab Chip 2014, 14, 325-332.
[16] R. M. Cornell, U. S. The Iron Oxides: Structure, Properties, Reactions,
Occurrences and Uses. WILEY-VCH; Weinheim, 2003.
[17] Nieves-Remacha, M. J.; Kulkarni, A. A.; Jensen, K. F. Hydrodynamics
of Liquid-Liquid Dispersion in an Advanced-Flow Reactor. Ind Eng
Chem Res 2012, 51, 16251-16262.
[18] Gunther, A.; Khan, S. A.; Thalmann, M.; Trachsel, F.; Jensen, K. F.
Transport and reaction in microscale segmented gas-liquid flow. Lab
Chip 2004, 4, 278-286.
[19] Khan, S. A.; Gunther, A.; Schmidt, M. A.; Jensen, K. F. Microfluidic
synthesis of colloidal silica. Langmuir 2004, 20, 8604-8611.