Controlling size and size distribution of electrohydrodynamically prepared microbubbles

Abstract

AbstractThere are several methods for producing commercial quantities of coated microbubbles with diameters <10 μm and a low polydispersivity index for use as ultrasound contrast agents, drug and gene delivery vehicles. Co-axial electrohydrodynamic microbubbling is a recently developed method which can generate microbubbles at a high rate. In this method, two capillary needles are concentrically aligned and subjected to a potential difference applied between the needles and a ground electrode with a stream of gas pushed through the inner needle and a stream of liquid through the outer so that a two-phase jet is formed at the outlet. The jet breaks up into microbubbles which are collected in a suitable liquid. In this work, co-axial electrohydrodynamic microbubbling was used to prepare microbubbles from a phospholipid suspension containing 2 wt-% Tween 80, a surfactant. Microbubbling was carried out under different electrical fields and air/liquid flowrates in order to prepare microbubbles with a low polyd...