Calcium Phosphate Nanoparticle Precipitation by a Continuous Flow Process: A Design of Experiment Approach

Calcium phosphate nanoparticles (CaP NPs) are an efficient class of nanomaterials mainly used for biomedical applications but also very promising in other sectors such as cosmetics, catalysis, water remediation, and agriculture. Unfortunately, as in the case of other nanomaterials, their wide applic...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Crystals (Basel) 2020-10, Vol.10 (10), p.953
Main Authors: Degli Esposti, Lorenzo, Dotti, Alessandro, Adamiano, Alessio, Fabbi, Claudia, Quarta, Eride, Colombo, Paolo, Catalucci, Daniele, De Luca, Claudio, Iafisco, Michele
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biomedical materials
calcium phosphate
Calcium phosphates
Chemical precipitation
Chemical properties
Continuous flow
continuous flow synthesis
Cosmetics
Data analysis
design of experiment
Design of experiments
Flow velocity
Industrial production
Maturation
Morphology
Nanomaterials
nanomedicine
Nanoparticles
Particle size
Purity
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Summary:Calcium phosphate nanoparticles (CaP NPs) are an efficient class of nanomaterials mainly used for biomedical applications but also very promising in other sectors such as cosmetics, catalysis, water remediation, and agriculture. Unfortunately, as in the case of other nanomaterials, their wide application is hindered by the difficulty to control size, morphology, purity and degree of particle aggregation in the translation from laboratory to industrial scale production that is usually carried out in batch or semi-batch systems. In this regard, the use of continuous flow synthesis can help to solve this problem, providing more homogenous reaction conditions and highly reproducible synthesis. In this paper, we have studied with a design of experiment approach the precipitation of citrate functionalized CaP NPs aided by sonication using a continuous flow wet chemical precipitation, and the effect of some of the most relevant process factors (i.e., reactant flow rate, sonication amplitude, and maturation time) on the physico-chemical properties of the NPs were evaluated. From the statistical data analysis, we have found that CaP NP dimensions are influenced by the reactor flow rate, while the crystalline domain dimensions and product purity are influenced by the maturation process. This work provides a deeper understanding of the relationships between reaction process factors and CaP NP properties, and is a relevant contribution for the scale-up production of CaP NPs for nanomedical or other applications.
ISSN:2073-4352
2073-4352
DOI:10.3390/cryst10100953