Automated and Advanced Characterisation of Single Nanoparticles

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Nanoparticles have revolutionised areas of medicine ranging from drug delivery to medical imaging to ultra-sensitive biosensors. However, many nanoparticles are still prepared with bulk synthesis methods, which leads to poor control over particle properties such as size and loading efficiency. This heterogeneity has significant biological consequences, which can severely impede the translation of nanomedicines to the clinic. Microfluidics offers a promising solution. The small volumes used in microfluidics offer improved control over mass transport compared to bulk approaches, allowing for more homogeneous nanoparticle physiochemical properties and higher batch-to-batch reproducibility.To assess inter-particle heterogeneity requires single particle characterisation techniques. One effective method is SPARTA, a recently developed, high-throughput and automated technique that uses Raman spectroscopy to non-destructively analyse single nanoparticles. This project will use SPARTA to assess the quality of various nanomedicines prepared with bulk and microfluidic methods. To provide complementary imaging information, samples will be characterised with liquid-phase electron microscopy, a technique capable of imaging samples in water with sub-nanometre resolution.This project will focus on techniques which are scalable to industry and materials which are previously approved for used in humans to improve the translational quality of the proposed technology.