ADVANCED FLOW TECHNOLOGY FOR HEALTHCARE MATERIALS MANUFACTURING

无机纳米粒子有可能极大地改变现有材料，同时提供设计各种变革性新产品的能力。无机纳米粒子具有散装材料所没有的独特性能，为解决一些最紧迫的全球挑战提供了机会和潜力。这导致了激烈的全球竞争，以开发和商业化纳米产品，在医疗保健，能源，运输和安全的各种应用，目的是获得在纳米技术领域的主导市场地位。纳米粒子为检测和治疗许多疾病提供了理想的解决方案。它们可用作药物载体、标记和追踪剂、基因治疗载体、热疗载体和磁共振成像造影剂。作为靶向给药系统，它们可以改善已经上市的药物的性能。它们能够开发新的治疗策略，如抗癌药物输送，延长产品生命周期和降低医疗成本。在本提案中，我们专注于金纳米颗粒（Au-NPs）和氧化铁磁性纳米颗粒（MNP）的制造。这些材料在诊断学和治疗学中具有现有的应用。定制的单分散功能化纳米颗粒在抗菌表面（Au纳米颗粒加染料）和癌症的新热疗治疗（MNP）中提供了新的应用。UCL在纳米粒子制造工程方法方面处于世界领先地位，在磁热疗和抗菌表面方面也处于世界领先地位。纳米粒子通常在相对较小的批量反应器中合成。这些系统的可控性很差，导致产品难以复制。此外，它们也不适合权宜升级。这些问题是由于间歇式反应器的特征是低效率的混合和缓慢的热量和质量传递，以及由于难以及时分离合成的各个阶段，特别是颗粒成核和生长。该研究旨在设计和展示一种新的，可持续的和可扩展的方法，用于以可控和可再生的方式制造具有先进性能的高价值纳米材料，并且不涉及重大的升级问题。为了实现这一雄心勃勃的目标，我们将整合不同学科（材料化学，工程）的方法，技能和优势，寻求工业合作伙伴和英国制造中心的指导。他们将为我们提供最先进的设备，分享他们的专业知识，并为我们的工作提供应用环境，他们将进一步表征纳米颗粒，评估其性能，并促进生产和市场途径。目前有很多开发新材料的研究，重点是发现，但很少强调制造。在多学科框架内使用化学工程原理和系统工程方法，我们的研究将证明不仅需要考虑关键的物理现象（混合，传热等）。纳米颗粒合成中，以及如何从一开始就考虑和解决相关的制造挑战。通过这种方式，该项目的一个重要好处将是提供纳米颗粒合成和生产的范式转变，并弥合发现-制造鸿沟。

Inorganic nanoparticles have the potential to dramatically modify existing materials while providing the capability to engineer a broad range of transformative new products. Exhibiting unique properties not encountered in bulk materials, inorganic nanoparticles present the opportunity to address, and the potential to overcome, some of the most pressing global challenges. This is leading to intense global competition to develop and commercialize nanoproducts with a variety of applications in healthcare, energy, transport and security, with the aim of acquiring a dominant market position in the nanotechnology sector. Nanoparticles offer ideal solutions for detecting and treating many diseases. They can be used as drug carriers, labelling and tracking agents, and vectors for gene therapy, hyperthermia treatment and magnetic resonance imaging contrast agents. Used as targeted drug-delivery systems, they can improve the performance of medicines already on the market. They enable the development of new therapeutic strategies such as anti-cancer drug delivery, extending product life cycles and reducing healthcare costs. In this proposal we focus on the manufacturing of gold nanoparticles (Au-NPs) and iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs). These materials have existing applications in diagnostics and therapeutics. Bespoke monodispersed functionalised NPs offer new applications in antimicrobial surfaces (Au NPs plus dye) and in a new hyperthermia treatment for cancer (MNPs). UCL is at the forefront of the engineering approach to make nanoparticles as well as being world leading in magnetic hyperthermia and antimicrobial surfaces.Nanoparticles are conventionally synthesized in relatively small batch reactors. These systems are poorly controllable, leading to products that are hard to reproduce. Also, they do not lend themselves to expedient upscaling. Such problems are caused by the inefficient mixing and slow heat and mass transfer characterizing batch reactors, and by the difficulty of decoupling in time the various stages of the synthesis, particularly particle nucleation and growth. This research aims to design and demonstrate a new, sustainable and scalable approach for manufacturing high-value nanomaterials with advanced properties in a way that is controllable and reproducible and that does not involve significant upscaling issues. To attain this ambitious goal, we will integrate methods, skills and strengths of different disciplines (materials chemistry, engineering), seeking guidance from industrial partners and UK manufacturing centres. Giving us access to their state-of-the-art facilities, sharing their expertise and providing an application context for our work, they will further characterize the nanoparticles, evaluate their performance and facilitate pathways to manufacture and routes to market.There is currently a lot of research in developing novel materials, where the focus is on discovery but with little emphasis on manufacturing. Using chemical engineering principles and systems engineering methodologies within a multidisciplinary framework, our research will demonstrate not only the need to consider key physical phenomena (mixing, heat transfer etc.) in nanoparticles synthesis, but also how to account and address related manufacturing challenges from the outset. In this way, an important benefit of this project will be to provide a paradigm shift in nanoparticle synthesis and production and bridge the discovery-manufacturing divide.