Evaluation of ultrasonic atomization as a new approach to prepare ionically cross-linked chitosan microparticles

Novel applications of ultrasonic atomization in the manufacturing of fine chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices

Liquid atomization as a fluid disintegration method has been used in many industrial applications such as spray drying, coating, incineration, preparation of emulsions, medical devices, etc. The usage of ultrasonic energy for atomizing liquid is gaining interest as a green and energy-efficient alternative to traditional mechanical atomizers. In the past two decades, efforts have been made to explore new applications of ultrasonic misting for downstream separation of chemicals, e.g., bioethanol, from their aqueous solutions. Downstream separation of a chemical from its aqueous solutions is known to be an energy-intensive process. Conventional distillation is featured by low energy efficiency and inability to separate azeotropic mixtures, and thus novel alternatives, such as ultrasonic separation have been explored to advance the separation technology. Ultrasonic misting has been reported to generate mist and vapor mixture in a gaseous phase that is enriched in solute (e.g., ethanol), under non-thermal, non-equilibrium, and phase change free conditions. This review article takes an in-depth look into the recent advancements in ultrasound-mediated separation of organic molecules, especially bioethanol, from their aqueous solutions. An effort was made to analyze and compare the experimental setups used, mist collection methods, droplet size distribution, and separation mechanism. In addition, the applications of ultrasonic atomization in the production of pharmaceuticals and medical devices are discussed.

The effect of an ultrasonic spray nozzle on carbohydrate and protein-based coating materials for blueberry extract microencapsulation

BACKGROUND

An ultrasonic spray nozzle was evaluated for the production of powders and microcapsules, using blueberry extract, modified starch (HI-CAP 100), and whey protein isolate (WPI). The effects of ultrasonic power and the concentration of coating materials on the characteristics of the resulting samples - such as viscosity, particle size, microencapsulation efficiency, color, glass transition temperature, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), and morphology - were also studied.

RESULTS

The apparent viscosity was primarily affected by the self-heating of the ultrasonic nozzle as the power increased. The largest mean particle size of samples was observed under conditions of 30% coating concentration at 10 W. Glass transition temperatures (T_g ) of the samples were affected by all atomization parameters significantly (P < 0.05) and the highest T_g values of all samples were determined when the coating concentration was maximum (30%) and power level was minimum (5 W). The FTIR and XRD results indicate that the power of the ultrasonic nozzle did not cause any change in WPI structure and led to only a small change in the structure of HI-CAP 100 at 10 W. The short atomization time preserved, to some extent, the properties of the coating materials and the blueberry extract. With regard to the morphological properties, it was observed that the samples obtained with WPI showed less shrinkage than HI-CAP 100.

CONCLUSION

The results indicated that an ultrasonic nozzle could be used successfully to prepare the blueberry microcapsule with HI-CAP 100 and WPI as coating materials. This study may contribute to the development of ultrasonic nozzle applications using different coatings for the microencapsulation of high-quality functional materials. © 2020 Society of Chemical Industry.

Dry powder inhaler formulation of lipid-polymer hybrid nanoparticles via electrostatically-driven nanoparticle assembly onto microscale carrier particles

Lipid-polymer hybrid nanoparticles have emerged as promising nanoscale carriers of therapeutics as they combine the attractive characteristics of liposomes and polymers. Herein we develop dry powder inhaler (DPI) formulation of hybrid nanoparticles composed of poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) and soybean lecithin as the polymer and lipid constituents, respectively. The hybrid nanoparticles are transformed into inhalable microscale nanocomposite structures by a novel technique based on electrostatically-driven adsorption of nanoparticles onto polysaccharide carrier particles, which eliminates the drawbacks of conventional techniques based on controlled drying (e.g. nanoparticle-specific formulation, low yield). First, we engineer polysaccharide carrier particles made up of chitosan cross-linked with tripolyphosphate and dextran sulphate to exhibit the desired aerosolization characteristics and physical robustness. Second, we investigate the effects of nanoparticle to carrier mass ratio and salt inclusion on the adsorption efficiency, in terms of the nanoparticle loading and yield, from which the optimal formulation is determined. Desorption of the nanoparticles from the carrier particles in phosphate buffer saline is also examined. Lastly, we characterize aerosolization efficiency of the nanocomposite product in vitro, where the emitted dose and respirable fraction are found to be comparable to the values of conventional DPI formulations.