The general approach of this research is to establish synthesis methodologies for Zeolite microstructures that will enable the direct engineering of the Zeolite structure and chemistry in order to obtain the desired physicochemical, thermo mechanical and transport properties needed for the storage, immobilization and release of bioactive molecules. This includes the hollow zeolite microspheres, zeolite compositional micropatterns and zeolite microneedles....[ Read more ]

The general approach of this research is to establish synthesis methodologies for Zeolite microstructures that will enable the direct engineering of the Zeolite structure and chemistry in order to obtain the desired physicochemical, thermo mechanical and transport properties needed for the storage, immobilization and release of bioactive molecules. This includes the hollow zeolite microspheres, zeolite compositional micropatterns and zeolite microneedles.

The zeolite microspheres were fabricated using Layer by Layer (LbL) procedure but unlike other approaches, the template removal was conducted in solution at low temperature. This ensures the microspheres remained in a stable colloidal suspension. The storage and transport of lithium chloride, sodium chloride, sodium pervanadate and latrunculin A in the zeolite microspheres were investigated. The hollow microspheres enable us to store small, water-soluble molecules and the transported molecules remained active as demonstrated by in-vitro studies. The preparation of magnetic microspheres and biotin/antibody conjugated microspheres were illustrated for targeted delivery.

Zeolite compositional micropatterns of micrometer line widths were fabricated from structurally-similar hydrophobic Sil-1 and hydrophilic ZSM-5 zeolite, and were tested for the immobilization of fluorescent dyes and biomolecules. It showed that biomolecules prefer to deposit on the ZSM-5 patterns regardless of the pattern geometry. The micropattern was then used as tool to demonstrate the successful conjugation of biotin to zeolite and targeted delivery.

Zeolite microneedles were fabricated to perform local delivery of drugs through the skin. The fabrication of zeolite microneedles involves deposition and growth of zeolite on the polymer microneedles template and followed by the removal of template from the shell. Polymeric microneedles with different degrees of tapering will be achieved by varying the UV exposure time and developing time during lithography process.