Fundamental Studies of the Drying of Complex Multiphase Aerosol Droplets

复杂多相气溶胶液滴干燥的基础研究

• 批准号: EP/W022206/1
• 负责人: Jonathan Reid
• 金额: $ 51.69万
• 依托单位: University of Bristol
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FW022206%2F1
• 关键词: Fundamental; Studies; Drying; Complex; Multiphase

Aerosols consist of liquid droplets or solid particles dispersed within a gas phase (typically air). Such droplets and particles can range in size from nanometres to millimetres. Aerosols are widely used to treat asthma via inhalation of therapeutic drugs and, in principle, enable the treatment of systemic diseases and the delivery of vaccines. They also find widespread application in consumer and agrochemical products, are prevalent in the atmosphere as particulate matter (PM) affecting air quality and human health, and are vehicles for the transmission of respiratory pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, and the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis. In all cases, the dispersed phase is dynamic, changing rapidly in moisture content and particle/droplet size during transport in the atmosphere, and often interchanging phase. Further complexity arises in most real-world systems: the droplets/particles can be multiphase consisting, for example, of dispersed solid nanoparticles within a liquid host droplet. Understanding such complex multiphase systems is crucial for designing pharmaceutical formulations to deliver drugs to the lungs, controlling the drying kinetics and engineered final particle structure in industrial processes such as spray-drying, and rationalising the airborne survival of viruses and bacteria in exhaled respiratory aerosol. Despite the importance of this broad range of problems, there are very few relevant studies of the dynamic transformation of aerosol droplets containing dispersed nanoparticles.We will integrate complementary expertise at the Universities of Bristol, Manchester and Sheffield to investigate the many physicochemical parameters that control the stability and structure of dried microparticles formed from solution aerosol droplets containing nanoparticles. The Bristol team has developed an array of state-of-the-art experimental methods to study the evaporation and drying of aerosol droplets in real time by monitoring their evolving size, composition, phase state and structure, while also capturing the final dried microparticles for post-mortem analysis. At Manchester, the team has extensive modelling capabilities to simulate the drying kinetics of evaporating aerosol droplets to account for changes in fluid viscosity, composition and temperature. The Sheffield team has developed synthetic routes to produce tailored polymer nanoparticles of varying size, shape, and surface chemistry in water, polar solvents or non-polar solvents, including the bio-inspired synthesis of several virus mimics. This combined expertise will enable us to examine a wide range of nanoparticles of selected size and character at known concentrations within host liquid droplets. Such nanoparticle-loaded droplets will be generated with reproducible size in a controlled environment of known temperature and gas phase composition, and their evaporation will be studied in real time (on timescales ranging from milliseconds to hours) through to the point of solidification. The structure of the final dried microparticles will be examined by scanning electron microscopy. These experiments will be compared with model predictions of evolving particle size and composition, and the structure and moisture stability of the microparticles will be evaluated. Ultimately, these observations will enable us to develop a framework for predicting how the various microphysical processes that occur during drying and the character of the nanoparticles within the host droplets affect the final microparticles.Working closely with industrial partners with expertise in the pharmaceutical, consumer product and aerobiology sectors, we will establish robust physical principles for understanding the dynamics occurring in aerosols of complex composition and phase in domains extending from drug delivery to the lungs to spray-drying of commercial products to mechanisms of disease transmission.

气溶胶由分散在气相（通常是空气）中的液滴或固体颗粒组成。这些液滴和颗粒的尺寸范围可以从纳米到毫米。气雾剂广泛用于通过吸入治疗药物来治疗哮喘，原则上可以治疗全身性疾病和输送疫苗。它们还广泛应用于消费品和农化产品中，作为影响空气质量和人类健康的颗粒物 (PM) 在大气中普遍存在，并且是传播呼吸道病原体（例如 SARS-CoV-2）的载体，该病毒是导致COVID-19 和导致结核病的细菌。在所有情况下，分散相都是动态的，在大气中传输期间水分含量和颗粒/液滴尺寸迅速变化，并且经常交换相。在大多数现实世界的系统中出现了进一步的复杂性：液滴/颗粒可以是多相的，例如，由液体主体液滴内分散的固体纳米颗粒组成。了解这种复杂的多相系统对于设计将药物输送到肺部的药物制剂、控制喷雾干燥等工业过程中的干燥动力学和设计最终颗粒结构以及合理化呼出的呼吸气溶胶中病毒和细菌在空气中的生存至关重要。尽管这些广泛的问题很重要，但关于含有分散纳米颗粒的气溶胶液滴的动态转化的相关研究却很少。我们将整合布里斯托大学、曼彻斯特大学和谢菲尔德大学的互补专业知识，研究控制纳米粒子的许多物理化学参数。由含有纳米粒子的溶液气溶胶液滴形成的干燥微粒的稳定性和结构。布里斯托尔团队开发了一系列最先进的实验方法，通过监测气溶胶液滴不断变化的尺寸、成分、相态和结构来实时研究气溶胶液滴的蒸发和干燥，同时捕获最终干燥的微粒以用于事后分析。在曼彻斯特，该团队拥有广泛的建模能力，可以模拟蒸发气溶胶液滴的干燥动力学，以解释流体粘度、成分和温度的变化。谢菲尔德团队开发了合成路线，可以在水、极性溶剂或非极性溶剂中生产不同尺寸、形状和表面化学的定制聚合物纳米颗粒，包括几种病毒模拟物的仿生合成。这种综合的专业知识将使我们能够在宿主液滴内以已知浓度检查各种选定尺寸和特性的纳米颗粒。这种负载纳米颗粒的液滴将在已知温度和气相成分的受控环境中产生，其尺寸可重现，并且将实时研究它们的蒸发（时间范围从毫秒到小时）直至凝固点。最终干燥的微粒的结构将通过扫描电子显微镜检查。这些实验将与不断变化的颗粒尺寸和成分的模型预测进行比较，并对微粒的结构和水分稳定性进行评估。最终，这些观察结果将使我们能够开发一个框架，用于预测干燥过程中发生的各种微物理过程以及主体液滴内纳米粒子的特性如何影响最终的微粒。与在制药、消费品领域拥有专业知识的工业合作伙伴密切合作和空气生物学领域，我们将建立强大的物理原理，以了解复杂成分和阶段的气溶胶中发生的动力学，涉及从药物输送到肺部到商业产品的喷雾干燥到疾病传播机制的领域。

项目成果

Effect of the Addition of Diblock Copolymer Nanoparticles on the Evaporation Kinetics and Final Particle Morphology for Drying Aqueous Aerosol Droplets

添加二嵌段共聚物纳米颗粒对干燥水性气溶胶液滴的蒸发动力学和最终颗粒形态的影响

• DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.3c02930
• 发表时间: 2023-12-21
• 期刊: Langmuir
• 影响因子: 3.9
• 作者: Barnaby E A Miles;Derek H. H. Chan;Spyridon Varlas;L. K. Mahato;J. Archer;R. E. H. Miles;S. Armes;J. Reid
• 通讯作者: J. Reid