Single particles as resonators for thermomechanical analysis

Abstract

Thermal methods are indispensable for the characterization of most materials. However, the existing methods require bulk amounts for analysis and give an averaged response of a material. This can be especially challenging in a biomedical setting, where only very limited amounts of material are initially available. Nano-and microelectromechanical systems (NEMS/MEMS) offer the possibility of conducting thermal analysis on small amounts of materials in the nano-microgram range, but cleanroom fabricated resonators are required. Here, we report the use of single drug and collagen particles as micro mechanical resonators, thereby eliminating the need for cleanroom fabrication. Furthermore, the proposed method reveals additional thermal transitions that are undetected by standard thermal methods and provide the possibility of understanding fundamental changes in the mechanical properties of the materials during thermal cycling. This method is applicable to a variety of different materials and opens the door to fundamental mechanistic insights.

Consumer-Grade Inkjet Printer for Versatile and Precise Chemical Deposition

“…Previously, crystal growth has been directed via self-assembled monolayers, but inkjet printing offers on-demand flexibility. One use is within drug monitoring, where a recent study characterized bulk drug properties by measuring the resonance properties of single drug particles . Printing a seed pattern of this drug could enable the parallelization of this characterization method to speed up data collection.…”

“…One use is within drug monitoring, where a recent study characterized bulk drug properties by measuring the resonance properties of single drug particles. 69 Printing a seed pattern of this drug could enable the parallelization of this characterization method to speed up data collection. The fourth, and last, suggested application is camera-assisted spatially adaptive dosing, where events in a 2D system could be monitored with a camera and inkjet interventions could be made as per desire.…”

Bioinspired NEMS—Prospective of Collaboration with Nature

“…The main challenge in pharmaceutical analytics is to find a fast and accurate test for sensing in the nano domain at a single-molecule or -particle level. Recently the PMTA method (Particle Mechanical Thermal Analyses) [36] was developed and uses a single particle as a resonator to determine changes in their mechanical properties. The PMTA opens the possibility of the characterization of materials at the single-particle level, which is crucial for developing future nano medicine devices.…”