BACKGROUND Nanosized dry powder inhalers provide higher stability for poorly water-soluble drugs as compared with liquid formulations. However, the respirable particles must have a diameter of 1-5 μm in order to deposit in the lungs. Controlled agglomeration of the nanoparticles increases their geometric particle size so they can deposit easily in the lungs. In the lungs, they fall apart to ref...

CNT agglomerates, prepared by catalytic chemical vapor deposition in a nano-agglomerate fluidized-bed reactor are separated and dispersed. The effects of shearing, ball milling, and ultrasonic and chemical treatments on the dispersing of the carbon nanotubes were studied using SEM, TEM/HRTEM and a Malvern particle size analyser. The resulting microstructures of the agglomerates and the efficien...

This paper presents an investigation of powder dispersion based on a combined computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and discrete element method (DEM) approach. Agglomerates of different particle sizes and polydispersities are dispersed in a cyclonic flow at different flow velocities. The analysis of flow field and agglomerate properties indicates that the dispersion is governed by two competitive ...

An experimental study is conducted to determine the effect of different types of nanoparticles on the gas fluidization characteristics of nanoparticle agglomerates. Taking advantage of the extremely high porosity of the bed, optical techniques are used to visualize the flow behavior, as well as to measure the sizes of the fluidized nanoparticle agglomerates at the bed surface. Upon fluidizing 1...

Nano-aerosols composed of large agglomerates (LA) (>100nm) are more likely to promote pulmonary clearance via macrophages phagocytosis. Small agglomerates (SA) (<100nm) seem to escape this first defense mechanism and are more likely to interact directly with biological material. These different mechanisms can influence pulmonary toxicity. This hypothesis was evaluated by comparing the relative ...

Iron, as inorganic ion or as oxide, is widely used by biological systems in a myriad of biological functions (e.g., enzymatic, gene activation and/or regulation). In particular, marine organisms containing silica structures--diatoms and sponges--grow preferentially in the presence of iron. Using primary sponge cell culture from S. domuncula-primmorphs--as an in vitro model to study the Demospon...

Nanoparticle technology represents an attractive approach for formulating poorly water-soluble pulmonary medicines. Unfortunately, nanoparticle suspensions used in nebulizers or metered dose inhalers often suffer from physical instability in the form of uncontrolled agglomeration or Ostwald ripening. In addition, processing such suspensions into dry powders can yield broad particle size distrib...

Sustainable production and use of carbon nanotube (CNT)-enabled materials require efficient assessment of CNT environmental hazards, including the potential for CNT bioaccumulation and biomagnification in environmental receptors. Microbes, as abundant organisms responsible for nutrient cycling in soil and water, are important ecological receptors for studying the effects of CNTs. Quantification...

In systems in atomic scale and nanoscale such as clusters or agglomerates constituted by particles from a few to less than 100 atoms, quantum confinement effects are very important. Their optical and electronic properties are often dependent on the size of the systems and the way in which the atoms in these clusters are bonded. Generally, these nanostructures display optical and electronic prop...

The understanding of the rheological and mechanical properties of nanoparticle aggregates is important for the application of nanofillers in nanocompoistes. In this work, we report a rheological study on the rheological and mechanical properties of nano-silica agglomerates in the form of gel network mainly constructed by hydrogen bonds. The elastic model for rubber is modified to analyze the el...