On the spray drying of uniform functional microparticles

Spray drying is a typical method to produce particles in dry powder forms at industrial scale. Most spray-dried products often show a wide range of particle properties even within the same batch. At Monash University, we utilise a microfluidic spray drying approach to generate uniform microparticles with tightly controlled characteristics and sizes in a scalable, almost waste-flee process. The technique is useful to correlate the effects of formulation and spray drying conditions on the properties of spray-dried particles, and can be used to test new formulations for targeted applications such as encapsulation and release of active ingredients. The synthesis route can be applied to other self-assembling systems, includ- ing mesoporous, crystalline, and hierarchically structured microparticles. As spray drying is commonly used in commercial scales, the understanding of how functional particles are formed in relation to formulations and process conditions could assist in developing a cost effective, energy and material-efficient route to produce powders with better properties and ease of handling for more advanced applications such as selective adsorption and bio-separation.

Shell-formation mediated surface composition of uniform two-component microparticles fabricated by micro-fluidic spray drying: Effect of component size and solubility

This work is aimed to study the effects of component size and solubility on the surface composition of spray dried(SD)uniform two-component particles fabricated by micro-fluidic spray dryer.Various precursor liquid consisting of small molecular of methionine(Met,33 g/L)or lysine(Lys,739 g/L)and large-sized silica(12 nm)were prepared by adjusting the mass ratio of components.X-ray energy disper-sive results showed that the respective enrichment degree(De)of Met and Lys on the surface of SD-M1S9 and-L1S9 prepared at 150 C were 182±9% and 125±14%.The De of hydrophobic Met for SD-M1S1 and-M9S1 were 46±9% and 4±2%,respectively,whereas relative hydrophilic Lys mainly distributed internal of the particle meanwhile the De of silica on the surface for SD-L1S1 and-L9S1 were 17±4%and 12±1%,respectively.Drying temperature(120 and 180℃)showed more apparent effect on the De of amino acid for the particles of less amino acid.The possible formation mechanism of surface composition and the surface composition impact on the wettability of particles were explored.These results provide new guidance for manufacturing functional SD powders with various components.