Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology and Nanomedicine

Nanocomposites have special physical and chemical properties and an array of potential applications, in particular they can be used to adapt surface properties and introduce additional functionalities. Performance of nanocomposites depends on a number of parameters, but nanoparticles dispersion and distribution state remain the key challenge in order to obtain the full nanocomposites’ potential. Optinanopro project has worked to demonstrate the benefits of the introduction of nanotechnology into packaging, automotive and photovoltaic materials production lines. Special mention to the development

and industrial integration of electrospray nano-deposition, online dispersion and monitoring system to ensure a constant quality of produced nanocomposites. Nano-enhanced coating has been applied by electrospinning, a phenomenon that occurs

when an appropriate electric field is applied to a conductive solution. Electrospinning technology has been used to obtain both self-cleaning OPVs and product repellent surfaces (with tailored repellence to selected liquids) for easy emptying packaging. Bioinicia has achieved materials with tailored polarity including super hydrophobic properties but also amphiphobic ones, a quite peculiar behavior that is much less reported in the literature. In the case of OPV surfaces, hydrophobicity will allow the panels to self-clean from dirty rain, whereas the same effect will allow facilitating the emptying and therefore reduce leftover at end of life in case of polar liquids/pastes being packaged (e.g. oil in water emulsions for cosmetics). The process required a novel multistep approach that has been patented by Bioinicia on how to use electro-hydrodynamic processes for obtaining stable layers with target characteristics.