Continuous flow production of size-controllable niosomes using a thermostatic microreactor

The new roles of vesicular systems in advanced biomedical, analytical and food science applications demand novel preparation processes designed to reach the new standards. Particle size and monodispersity have become essential properties to control. In this work, key parameters, involved in a microfluidic reactor with hydrodynamic flow focusing, were investigated in order to quantify their effects on niosomes morphology. Particular attention was given to temperature, which is both a requirement to handle non-ionic surfactants with phase transition temperature above RT, and a tailoring variable for size and monodispersity control. With this aim, niosomes with two different sorbitan esters and cholesterol as stabilizer were formulated. High resolution and conventional 3D-printing technologies were employed for the fabrication of microfluidic reactor and thermostatic systems, since this additive technology has been essential for microfluidics development in terms of cost-effective and rapid prototyping. A customised device to control temperature and facilitate visualization of the process was developed, which can be easily coupled with commercial inverted microscopes. The results demonstrated the capability of microfluidic production of niosomes within the full range of non-ionic surfactants and membrane stabilizers.