Scalable Manufacturing of Nanobubbles via Ultrasonic Shearing for Biomedicine

通过超声波剪切大规模制造生物医学纳米气泡

• 批准号: 2322488
• 负责人: Mehdi Razavi
• 金额: $ 51.68万
• 依托单位: The University of Central Florida Board of Trustees
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-08-01 至 2028-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2322488&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Scalable; Manufacturing; Nanobubbles; via; Ultrasonic

Research funded by this award aims towards a better understanding and control of the formation of tiny bubbles, known as nanobubbles. These nanobubbles are highly sensitive to pressure changes and can release their contents when exposed to sound waves. Although these ultrasound-responsive nanobubbles hold promise for delivering drugs or aiding in medical imaging, their production with nanometer size and uniform size distribution has been challenging. This award supports fundamental research to develop a new method, called ultrasonic shearing, to create uniform-sized nanobubbles that can be tuned for size and chemistry as needed. The method integrates ultrasonication and shearing using an impeller to achieve monodispersed nanobubbles. This advancement could lead to large-scale manufacturing of nanobubbles with applications in biomedicine, such as gene and drug delivery for diseases such as osteoporosis. Additionally, this technology could enhance wastewater treatment systems by improving processes like oxygen transfer and air flotation, thereby reducing pollution. The project also includes educational efforts to increase the understanding of scalable nanobubble manufacturing and their biomedical applications, particularly among women and underrepresented minority groups, aiming to contribute to both scientific progress and societal benefits as well as the development of a skilled workforce.Various nanobubble sizes exhibit distinct behaviors, yet understanding their synthesis remains limited due to the absence of an efficient manufacturing method allowing precise size and size distribution control. Furthermore, there is a lack of fundamental knowledge on the relationship between the processing parameters and the acoustic properties of nanobubbles. This research advances nanobubble manufacturing methods by investigating the ultrasonic shearing mechanism, employing a combination of computational modeling and experimental methodologies. The inherent energy dynamics in the manufacturing process is simulated by calculating ultrasonic shear energy and nanobubble surface energy. Through the empirical assessment of temperature shifts within the emulsion, a correlation is established between the droplet vaporization and energy derived from ultrasonic shearing. Integrating this model with the ultrasonic shearing method enables the development of systems capable of tailoring nanobubble size as a function of ultrasonic shearing, incorporating variables such as ultrasound intensity, shearing rate, and process duration. This technique can generate programmable nanobubbles with controlled cargo release mechanisms. Additionally, the research aims to identify nanobubble subpopulations with enhanced responsiveness to ultrasound using tissue-mimicking materials for medical imaging applications. Finally, the project explores the interplay between ultrasonic shearing, therapeutic-encapsulated nanobubbles, and cellular dynamics, particularly in osteoporosis, to uncover potential therapeutic approaches.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该奖项资助的研究旨在更好地理解和控制小气泡的形成，即纳米泡。 这些纳米泡对压力变化高度敏感，并且在暴露于声波时可以释放其内容物。尽管这些超声响应性的纳米泡有望提供药物或有助于医学成像，但它们具有纳米大小和均匀尺寸分布的产量是具有挑战性的。该奖项支持基础研究，以开发一种称为超声剪切的新方法，以创建均匀尺寸的纳米泡，可以根据需要调整大小和化学。该方法使用叶轮进行超声处理和剪切，以实现单分散的纳米泡。这种进步可能会导致纳米泡大规模生产，并在生物医学中应用，例如基因和药物递送，例如骨质疏松症。此外，该技术可以通过改善氧气转移和空气浮选（从而减少污染）来增强废水处理系统。 The project also includes educational efforts to increase the understanding of scalable nanobubble manufacturing and their biomedical applications, particularly among women and underrepresented minority groups, aiming to contribute to both scientific progress and societal benefits as well as the development of a skilled workforce.Various nanobubble sizes exhibit distinct behaviors, yet understanding their synthesis remains limited due to the absence of an efficient manufacturing method allowing precise size and size distribution 控制。此外，关于加工参数与纳米泡的声学特性之间关系的基本知识缺乏基本知识。这项研究通过研究计算建模和实验方法的组合来研究超声剪切机制，从而推进纳米泡制造方法。通过计算超声剪切能和纳米泡表面能来模拟制造过程中的固有能量动力学。通过对乳液内温度变化的经验评估，在超声剪切中得出的液滴汽化与能量之间建立了相关性。将该模型与超声剪切方法整合在一起，可以开发能够根据超声剪切的函数来调整纳米泡大小的系统，并结合变量，例如超声强度，剪切速率和过程持续时间。该技术可以通过控制货物释放机制生成可编程的纳米泡。此外，该研究旨在鉴定使用模拟组织用于医学成像应用的纳米泡亚群，并增强对超声的响应能力。最后，该项目探讨了超声剪切，治疗性封闭的纳米泡和细胞动力学之间的相互作用，尤其是在骨质疏松症中，以发现潜在的治疗方法。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过该基金会的知识优点和广泛的影响来评估NSF的法定任务，并被认为是通过评估值得的。