FOCUS ON NANOMANUFACTURING Preparation of nanoparticles by continuous-flow microfluidics

We review a variety of microand nanoparticle formulations produced with microfluidic methods. A diverse variety of approaches to generate microscale and nanoscale particles has been reported. Here we emphasize the use of microfluidics, specifically microfluidic systems that operate in a continuous flow mode, thereby allowing continuous generation of desired particle formulations. The generation of semiconductor quantum dots, metal colloids, emulsions, and liposomes is considered. To emphasize the potential benefits of the continuousflow microfluidic methodology for nanoparticle generation, preliminary data on the size distribution of liposomes formed using the microfluidic approach is compared to the traditional bulk alcohol injection method.