An ultra-rapid acoustic micromixer for synthesis of organic nanoparticles

, corresponding to a mixing time of 0.8 ms. This rapid mixing was employed to mitigate some complexities in nanoparticle synthesis, namely controlling nanoprecipitation and size, batch to batch variation, synthesis throughput, and clogging. Both polymeric nanoparticles and liposomes were synthesized in this platform and showed a smaller effective size and narrower size distribution in comparison to those obtained by a hydrodynamic flow focusing method. Through changing the mixing time, the effective size of the nanoparticles could be fine-tuned for both polymeric nanoparticles and liposomes. The rapid mixing and strong vortices prevent aggregation of nanoparticles, leading to a substantially higher throughput of liposomes in comparison with that by the hydrodynamic flow focusing method. The straightforward fabrication process of the system coupled with low power consumption, high-controllability, and rapid mixing time renders this mixer a practical platform for a myriad of nano and biotechnological applications.