Acoustic trapping of microbubbles in complex environments and controlled payload release
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Published version
Author(s)
Garbin, Valeria
Baresch, diego
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Contactless manipulation of microparticles using acoustic waves holds promise for applications ranging from cell sorting to three-dimensional (3D) printing and tissue engineering. However, the unique potential of acoustic trapping to be applied in biomedical settings remains largely untapped. In particular, the main advantage of acoustic trapping over optical trapping, namely the ability of sound to propagate through thick and opaque media, has not yet been exploited in full. Here we demonstrate experimentally the use of the recently developed technique of single-beam acoustical tweezers to trap microbubbles, an important class of biomedically relevant microparticles. We show that the region of vanishing pressure of a propagating vortex beam can confine a microbubble by forcing low-amplitude, nonspherical, shape oscillations, enabling its full 3D positioning. Our interpretation is validated by the absolute calibration of the acoustic trapping force and the direct spatial mapping of isolated bubble echos, for which both find excellent agreement with our theoretical model. Furthermore, we prove the stability of the trap through centimeter-thick layers of bio-mimicking, elastic materials. Finally, we demonstrate the simultaneous trapping of nanoparticle-loaded microbubbles and activation with an independent acoustic field to trigger the release of the nanoparticles. Overall, using exclusively acoustic powering to position and actuate microbubbles paves the way toward controlled delivery of drug payloads in confined, hard-to-reach locations, with potential in vivo applications.
Date Issued
2020-07-07
Date Acceptance
2020-05-13
Citation
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of USA, 2020, 117 (27), pp.15490-15496
ISSN
0027-8424
Publisher
National Academy of Sciences
Start Page
15490
End Page
15496
Journal / Book Title
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of USA
Volume
117
Issue
27
Copyright Statement
© 2020 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
License URL
Sponsor
Commission of the European Communities
Identifier
https://www.pnas.org/content/117/27/15490
Grant Number
639221
Subjects
acoustic force
acoustical tweezers
microbubbles
micromanipulation
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2020-06-22