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SUMMARY:Drops: A tool to structure materials - Prof. Esther Amstad\, EPFL.
  Soft Materials Laboratory
DTSTART:20170602T150000Z
DTEND:20170602T160000Z
UID:TALK71392@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dr. Hernandez-Ainsa
DESCRIPTION:Drops are often used to produce particles of a defined size\, 
 shape\, and composition. For example\, pharmaceutical and food industries 
 often employ airborne drops to produce particles through spray drying. In 
 this case\, spray-dried particles are usually spherical and their size sca
 les with that of the drops. Drops can also be employed to tune the structu
 re of these particles\, which influences their properties. This can be ach
 ieved by controlling the evaporation rate of the solvent. If drops are mad
 e sufficiently small\, such that they have a high surface-to-volume ratio 
 and therefore dry very quickly\, they can even produce amorphous particles
  from materials that have a high propensity to crystallize. In the first p
 art of this talk\, I will present a microfluidic spray-dryer that produces
  µm-sized drops\, which are surrounded by fast-flowing air. These drops d
 ry so quickly that crystallization of solutes\, contained in the drops\, i
 s kinetically suppressed. Hence\, the resulting spray-dried particles are 
 amorphous even in the absence of any crystallization inhibiting additives.
  This is particularly beneficial for the formulation of hydrophobic substa
 nces\, such as many newly developed drugs\, whose bioavailability is limit
 ed by their slow dissolution rates and low solubility. \nA possibility to 
 produce much larger particles of controlled sizes and compositions is the 
 use of emulsion drops as templates. These drops can be converted into part
 icles that are dispersed in a liquid by solidifying their content. The liq
 uid-liquid interfaces of these emulsion drops offer possibilities to tune 
 the surface chemistry of particles that are produced from them. In the sec
 ond part of the talk\, I will show how we use these liquid-liquid interfac
 es to tune the surface chemistry of particles and capsules\, thereby makin
 g them responsive to external stimuli or making them mechanically very sta
 ble. However\, these particles and capsules are only truly useful\, if the
 y can be produced in sufficient quantities. In the last part of my talk\, 
 I will present a parallelized device that produces monodisperse drops at s
 ufficiently high throughputs to use them as building blocks for macroscopi
 c materials whose structure can be tuned with the size and arrangement of 
 drops. \n\n
LOCATION:Small Lecture Theatre\, Cavendish Laboratory
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