Phonofluidics drug delivery using tunable surface acoustic waves nebulisation with disposable phononic structures

Ismail, M. H., Reboud, J. , Wilson, R., Bourquin, Y., Zhang, Y. and Cooper, J. M. (2013) Phonofluidics drug delivery using tunable surface acoustic waves nebulisation with disposable phononic structures. Journal of Aerosol Medicine and Pulmonary Drug Delivery, 26(5), A19.

Abstract

Targeted delivery of medication to specific sites in the body can be achieved effectively via non-invasive routes, and most commonly through inhalation of drugs in a droplet form. Using the pulmonary route, there are very negligible undesired side effects since the drug is not exposed to the rest of the human body and able to react rapidly at the infected local area. The effective delivery of the medication depends heavily on the droplet size. In this research, a new technique using surface acoustic waves and phononics crystal structures were developed to generate and focus sound waves that can nebulise and control the droplet size. Nebulisation was enabled by surface acoustic waves generated by uniform interdigital transducers on a piezoelectric substrate (lithium niobate) and the waves were focused by a disposable phononic crystal structures (referred as a superstrate). The nebulised droplet sizes of various liquids were measured using Malvern Spraytec, a technique based on the laser diffraction. Droplet size was found to be inversely proportional to the excitation frequencies as expected from Kelvin, Rayleigh and Lang equations and directly proportional to the surface tension of the liquids. The mean diameters of droplets range between 0.87 and 2.15μm proved that SAW devices are capable of nebulising wide range of liquids and generating droplets within the optimum sizes for drug delivery at a very low input power of less than 2W.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: Abstracts from the Aerosol Society Drug Delivery to the Lung. 23 Edinburgh International Conference Centre, Edinburgh, December 5-7, 2012.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Zhang, Mr Yi and Cooper, Professor Jonathan and Reboud, Professor Julien
• Authors: Ismail, M. H., Reboud, J., Wilson, R., Bourquin, Y., Zhang, Y., and Cooper, J. M.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Biomedical Engineering
• Journal Name: Journal of Aerosol Medicine and Pulmonary Drug Delivery
• Publisher: Mary Ann Liebert
• ISSN: 1941-2711
• ISSN (Online): 1941-2703