Rapid production of biocompatible polymeric nanoparticles for functionalization via radio-frequency acoustic atomization

This work demonstrates the use of surface acoustic wave (SAW) atomization together with a nonuniform evaporation and nucleation process to give sub-50-nm diameter monodisperse nanoparticles. SAW atomization is a straightforward and energy efficient technique to generate relatively homogeneous particle size distributions that can be carried out on a chip-scale microdevice for portable drug delivery applications or scaled up for industrial production. It employs technology originally developed for the entirely different purpose of signal filtering and multiplexing, and provides direct control over the size of the particles through adjustment of the operating frequency of the ultrasonic vibration.