High throughput fiber reactor process for organic nanoparticle production: Poly(N‐isopropylacrylamide), polyacrylamide,and alginate

The goal of the present research was to scale microfluidic technology to a high throughput system using a fiber reactor platform. The nanoparticles studied are used in nanomedicine as drug delivery devices or “cages.” This process complements new research into skid‐based pharmaceutical production. Alginate nanoparticles were successfully generated in this process ranging in size from 23 to 151 nm with 424 g/day throughput. Polyacrylamide (PAm) nanoparticles were also formed and crosslinked with sizes ranging from 79 to 117 nm with 662 g/day throughput. Poly(N‐isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAm) nanoparticles with a size range of 12 to 63 nm and 650 g/day were produced as well. Both one‐ and two‐phase flows were demonstrated. The effects of changes in various process parameters on the formed nanoparticle morphology are documented. Tunable process control is demonstrated to reliably manipulate the PNIPAm nanoparticle lower critical solution temperature. Process temperature affected the mean diameter and size dispersity of all the nanoparticles. This was postulated to be due to a shearing effect arising from carrier viscosity changes. Flow rate affected the average particle diameter by 10%–30%, and temperature could be used to tune the NP diameter by 50% across a moderate process temperature range of 5 to 25 °C. The PDI was very responsive to process temperature as well, decreasing by almost 50% across the same temperature range. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017 , 134, 45524.