Descrizione del progetto
Un miglior controllo su getti di fluidi minuscoli e potenti semplificherà l’iniezione senza ago
Lo sviluppo di metodi potenziati senza ago per iniettare fluidi in substrati morbidi potrebbe avere un impatto significativo in settori che vanno dalla produzione additiva alla somministrazione di farmaci. Questi metodi si basano sull’iniezione di un getto ad alta pressione di microfluido guidato dall’equivalente di un tubo capillare con un’apertura di diametro estremamente ridotto. Questo risultato, pur apparendo piuttosto semplice in via di principio, è stato nella pratica estremamente impegnativo da raggiungere. Il progetto BuBble Gun, finanziato dall’UE, prevede di attivare la penetrazione pulita proprio alla giusta profondità, senza schizzi o dispersioni che possono causare contaminazione e alterare la dose in modo non prevedibile. Basandosi su una combinazione di metodi sperimentali e numerici, il team sta caratterizzando le fasi del processo per migliorare il controllo, la riproducibilità e l’applicazione diffusa.
Obiettivo
The needle-free delivery of liquid jets into soft and heterogeneous substrates, e.g. human tissue, has been hindered by (1) the need to reach specific penetration depths with energy efficient means, (2) the break-up of jets that impedes control over the dose delivery, and (3) liquid splash-back after impacting the substrate that cause cross-contamination between injections. BuBble Gun is aimed at overcoming these challenges. My team and I have recently uncovered new operational regimes of cavitation with continuous-wave lasers. My next goal is to study the energy partition between the creation of bubbles, the formation of liquid jets, and the penetration of these jets into soft substrates. Fundamental insights on energy partitioning will then be applied to achieve major breakthroughs in jet injection, by (1) controlling cavitation within microfluidic confinement, (2) tuning the rheology of jets emerging from confined cavitation, and (3) deriving the relationships between fluid dynamics and material properties governing jet injection into soft substrates. I expect to advance the knowledge at the intersection of microfluidics, physics, and bioengineering, to enable unprecedented control over cavitation, jetting, and injection phenomena. We will develop a portable energy- efficient injection platform by using ultra-high-speed imaging, and quantifying injections with experimental resolutions below the microsecond and micrometer scales. The rheological properties of the jets will be tuned with biocompatible additives to ensure cohesion, before injecting them into in-vitro targets and ex-vivo skin. Numerical models will assist untangling the influence of microfluidic configuration and material properties on the injection outcomes. The ultimate result will be the predictable, reproducible, and efficient injection of liquids that will enable a wide-range of technologies, such as additive manufacturing, coating modifications, the delivery of drugs and vaccinations.
Campo scientifico
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesclassical mechanicsfluid mechanicsmicrofluidics
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesclassical mechanicsfluid mechanicsfluid dynamics
- engineering and technologymaterials engineeringcoating and films
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringmanufacturing engineeringadditive manufacturing
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesopticslaser physics
Programma(i)
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
ERC-STG - Starting GrantIstituzione ospitante
7522 NB Enschede
Paesi Bassi