MIT researchers have demonstrated a low-cost design of specialized electronic nozzles, called triaxial electrospray emitters (pictured here), that could be used to manufacture time-release drug-delivery particles or self-healing materials. Credit: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MIT researchers have demonstrated a low-cost design for specialized electronic nozzles, called triaxial electrospray emitters, that could be used to manufacture time-release drug-delivery particles or self-healing materials efficiently and at scale.
Triaxial electrospray emitters use electricity to precisely dispense three liquids from microscopic nozzles to generate a steady stream with three distinct fluid layers. The liquid forms multilayered droplets, which can solidify into layered microparticles.
For instance, an array of triaxial electrospray emitters can be used to make three-layer drug-delivery nanoparticles. The outer layer might slowly erode in the stomach, revealing a second material that controls the release of a core material, which delivers medicine to a specific area of the intestines.
Developing a tiny array of electrospray emitters typically requires expensive and time-consuming microfabrication processes inside semiconductor clean rooms, which limits their use. To overcome these drawbacks, the MIT researchers 3D-printed arrays of triaxial electrospray emitters that have 16 nozzles in an area of about 1 square centimeter. Each device contains an intricate network of three-dimensional microchannels that uniformly supply liquid to the nozzles.
