High-Throughput Microfluidic Synthesis of Biocompatible Carbon-Dot-Loaded Liposomes: Geometry-Dependent Encapsulation and CFD Analysis of Mixing
Abstract
Microfluidic platforms offer precise control over nanocarrier synthesis but remain underexploited for low-cost production of multifunctional carbon dot-liposome (CDLiposome) systems. Here, we optimize the synthesis of CD-loaded liposomes using four PMMA micromixer geometriesSerpentine, SARS, Circular Features (CF), and Chambersand quantitatively link encapsulation performance, mixing physics, and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models. All devices produced monodisperse vesicles with hydrodynamic diameters of ∼150-200 nm. Encapsulation experiments combining two total flow rates (TFR = 75 and 150 mL/h) and three flow rate ratios (FRR = 1:1, 1:2, and 2:1) revealed that FRR is the dominant parameter: a lipid-to-aqueous FRR of 2:1 yielded significantly higher encapsulation efficiencies across all geometries, whereas TFR had no statistically significant effect, enabling high-throughput operation at 150 mL/h. The Chambers device exhibited the best performance, achieving encapsulation efficiencies approaching 90%, followed by CF, SARS, and Serpentine. To rationalize these trends, we compared experimental mixing profiles with COMSOL Multiphysics simulations using Mixture and Euler-Euler frameworks and multiple RANS closures. At low TFR (2 mL/h), the Laminar model accurately reproduced PIV-validated velocity fields, whereas at higher TFRs (75-150 mL/h), an empirically tuned Custom 2 model was required to match the scalar mixing efficiency, demonstrating that no single RANS…
Read the paper
Related studies
- Quantum dots: synthesis, bioapplications, and toxicity
- A Guide to In Silico Drug Design
- Quantum Computing for Healthcare: A Review
- Automated in Silico Design of Homogeneous Catalysts
- Identification of Novel 3-Hydroxy-pyran-4-One Derivatives as Potent HIV-1 Integrase Inhibitors Using in silico Structure-Based Combinatorial Library Design Approach
- In silico structural elucidation of RNA-dependent RNA polymerase towards the identification of potential Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Virus inhibitors
Go deeper in Evidence Hub
Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.