(136b) Making Nanostructured Materials for Health Applications Using Atomic Layer Deposition

While nanotechnology could potentially play an enormous role in the medical field, it is often not straightforward to make nanostructured materials for pharma and medical devices in a scalable manner. We will show that variations of atomic layer deposition (ALD) – a coating technique that has really taken off in the semiconductor sector – can be used to make nanostructured materials for several health applications in a scalable way.

Modifying the surface of grains of powder – as used for example in dry powder inhalers for treating respiratory diseases – can increase the powder flowability while also adding a controlled release functionality. In this way, the powder is used more effectively and side-effects in the patient can strongly be reduced [1,2].

In targeted radionuclide therapy a major hurdle is the dependence on a very limited number of nuclear reactors worldwide to produce these radioisotopes. ALD can provide a way to prepare radionuclide generators, that can be placed in hospitals, providing on-site and on-demand supply. By modifying sorbent particles for isotope separation by ALD, we have made the first step towards ⁹⁹Mo/^99mTc radionuclide generators [3]. And by Lu ALD on nanoparticles, we have taken a step in producing ¹⁷⁷Lu radionuclides [4].

We also apply ALD to other substrates than powders. Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is a widely used material for lab-on-a-chip and organ-on-a-chip devices. It is very versatile, but the drawback is its low stability, especially when in contact with organic solvents. We will show that modifying the surface with ceramic oxide using ALD is a way to get much more durable microfluidic devices, usable for a range of health applications.

[1] Zhang, D., La Zara, D., Quayle, M. J., Petersson, G., Van Ommen, J. R., & Folestad, S. (2019). Nanoengineering of crystal and amorphous surfaces of pharmaceutical particles for biomedical applications. ACS Applied Bio Materials, 2(4), 1518-1530.

[2] La Zara, D., Sun, F., Zhang, F., Franek, F., Balogh Sivars, K., Horndahl, J., Bates, S., Brännström, M., Ewing, P., Quayle, M. J., Petersson, G., Folestad, S. & van Ommen, J. R. (2021). Controlled Pulmonary Delivery of Carrier-Free Budesonide Dry Powder by Atomic Layer Deposition. ACS Nano, 15(4), 6684-6698.

[3] Moret, J. L. T. M., Alkemade, J., Upcraft, T. M., Oehlke, E., Wolterbeek, H. T., van Ommen, J. R., & Denkova, A. G. (2020). The application of atomic layer deposition in the production of sorbents for 99Mo/99mTc generator. Applied Radiation and Isotopes, 164, 109266.

[4] Moret, J. L., Griffiths, M. B., Frijns, J. E., Terpstra, B. E., Wolterbeek, H. T., Barry, S. T., Denkova, A.G. & Van Ommen, J. R. (2020). Lutetium coating of nanoparticles by atomic layer deposition. Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A: Vacuum, Surfaces, and Films, 38(2), 022414.