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Continuous production and separation of new biocompatible palladium nanoparticles using a droplet microreactor

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Abstract

The work involves design and fabrication of a new microfluidic platform to synthesize palladium (Pd) nanoparticles coated with trimethyl chitosan (TMC), for biomedical applications. TMC-coated palladium nanoparticles (TMC/Pd NPs) were prepared in continuous mode, using the microfluidic reactor. Droplet-generation approach was adopted since it provides a high degree of control over mixing and reagent loading. However, one major limitation was the cumbersome recovery of the synthesized nanoparticles, which required laborious “off-chip” procedures like droplet separation and nanoparticle re-suspension. These issues were overcome using the continuous flow microfluidic system integrated with separation system, to enable rapid synthesis and retrieval of TMC/PdNPs using a single platform. The synthesized nanoparticles were spherical, having an average diameter of 35–40 nm. These TMC/Pd NPs are yet unexplored for biomedical applications. Thus, their biocompatibility and cellular uptake was assessed using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay, confocal microscopy and binding kinetics assay (Ligand Tracer® Green), which indicated the suitability of the formulation for biomedical applications.

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Abbreviations

TMC:

Trimethyl chitosan

TMC/Pd NPs:

TMC-coated palladium nanoparticles

NPs:

Nanoparticles

DES:

Deep eutectic solvent

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Acknowledgements

We are thankful to Anomitra Dey and Tejal Pant for guiding us with the studies involving confocal microscopy and kinetic studies.

Funding

Authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the Department of Atomic Energy/ Institute of Chemical Technology (DAE/ICT), and Department of Biotechnology-RGCB, Govt. of India (6242- P111/RGCB/PMD/DBT/PDJN/2015) for funding. We are thankful to Ramanujan fellowship research grant (SR/S2/RJN-139/2011) and Ramalingaswami fellowship research grant (BT/RLF/Re-entry/51/2011) for financial support. We are also thankful to the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) for SRF fellowship. We confirm that the manuscript is the authors’ original work and the manuscript has not received prior publication and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering Institute of Chemical Technology, Nathalal Parekh Marg, Matunga, Mumbai, 400019, India

    Ganesh Gaikwad, Kaustubh Rane, Sunil Bhagwat & Ratnesh Jain

  2. Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technology Institute of Chemical Technology, Nathalal Parekh Marg, Matunga, Mumbai, 400019, India

    Prachi Bangde & Prajakta Dandekar

  3. Ridgeview Instruments AB, Vänge, Sweden

    Jonas Stenberg

  4. Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Colaba, Mumbai, Maharashtra, 400005, India

    Lalit Borde

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  1. Ganesh Gaikwad
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  2. Prachi Bangde
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All authors have contributed in writing the manuscript and have approved the final version of the manuscript. ‡ These authors contributed equally.

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10404_2020_2410_MOESM1_ESM.docx

Supporting Information file includes procedure for TMC synthesis, Figure (S1) which depicts 1H NMR for chitosan and TMC, Figure (S2–5) individual TEM images for NPs synthesized in batch, slug, transition-slug and droplet micro reactor (at the scale of 200nm), Figure (S6) Individual Droplet microreactor integrated setup with decanter. (DOCX 5097 KB)

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Gaikwad, G., Bangde, P., Rane, K. et al. Continuous production and separation of new biocompatible palladium nanoparticles using a droplet microreactor. Microfluid Nanofluid 25, 27 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-020-02410-x

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