I-Corps: Making a Stable Colloid from Small Molecules

这个项目的目的是在发现稳定的水性胶体的基础上开发一种产品设计。这种胶体系统的粒径约为100纳米，仅由简单的小分子组成，与目前需要添加表面活性剂、电解质或粘度调节剂的工业工艺不同。胶体广泛应用于医药和工业中，以制造液体产品，如药品，食品/饮料，农用化学品。该过程包括通过将疏水化合物分散在水介质中，并通过称为亲水分子的小两亲分子来稳定它们，从而形成胶体系统。低分子量醇是典型的亲水化合物。这样一个系统的创建只需要简单的混合，从而大大节省了原材料、设备和能源成本。到目前为止，这项技术已被证明可以分散疏水化合物，如环己烷。本提案旨在将基础研究发现与潜在的新应用联系起来，以便将研究转化为新产品、新工艺和新服务。这个跨学科的项目是物理化学、分子物理、材料科学和化学工程的交叉。建议的研究将通过弥合基础，应用和商业化之间的差距，丰富工程教育。除了预期的商业目标（包括药品、食品/饮料、农用化学品、化妆品/洗涤剂）之外，相关的商业前景还可以进一步扩展到更广泛的工业和医疗应用清单，例如纳米封装药物输送或软物质工程。近年来，丙醇和丁醇异构体水溶液作为一种新的清洁能源，被认为是乙醇的有前途的替代品，引起了人们的极大兴趣。这些醇可以通过涉及细菌的代谢工程产生。在这些溶液中制造纳米级胶体可以通过包裹细菌来控制代谢速率。

The purpose of this project is the development of a product design based on the discovery of stable aqueous colloids. Such a colloidal system, with a particle size of about one hundred nanometer, consists only of small simple molecules, in contrast to current industrial processes where the addition of surfactants, electrolytes, or viscosity modifiers is needed. Colloids are widely used in medicine and industry to create liquid-based products such as pharmaceuticals, food/beverages, agrochemicals. The process consists of creating a colloidal system by dispersing hydrophobic compounds in an aqueous medium and stabilizing them by small amphiphilic molecules known as hydrotropes. Low molecular weight alcohols are typical examples of hydrotropes. The creation of such a system requires only simple mixing, thus contributing to significant savings in raw materials, equipment, and energy costs. This technology, so far, has been proven for dispersing hydrophobic compounds such as cyclohexane. This proposal aims to connect fundamental research discoveries and potential novel applications, so that this research can be transformed into new products, processes, and services. This interdisciplinary project is at the intersection of physical chemistry, molecular physics, materials science, and chemical engineering. The proposed research will enrich engineering education, by bridging the gap between fundamentals, applications, and commercialization. In addition to anticipated commercial targets, which include pharmaceuticals, food/beverages, agrochemicals, cosmetics/detergents, the relevant commercial landscape can be further extended to a much broader list of industrial and medical applications, such as nano-encapsulated drug delivery or soft-matter engineering. Recently, the interest in aqueous solutions of propanol and butanol isomers, as a new clean energy source, has greatly increased because such alcohols are considered promising alternatives to ethanol. These alcohols can be produced via metabolic engineering, which involves bacteria. Making nanosize colloids in these solutions could enable one to control the rate of metabolism through encapsulation of bacteria.