An insight on reducing the particle size of poorly-water soluble curcumin via LASP in microchannels

• Potential of microchannels in LASP process.
• The dependence of particle size distribution on the type of stabilizer.
• Effect of confluence angle on curcumin particle size reduction.
• Generation of curcumin nano-particles up to 77 nm.
• 4.5-fold increase in the specific surface area of original curcumin.

The potential of microchannel reactors (MCRs) was investigated to prepare curcumin nanoparticles, via liquid anti-solvent precipitation (LASP) technique. Three various arrangements of double jet impingement microchannels were proposed with confluence angles of 45°, 90°, and 135°. The understanding of mixing phenomenon was further linked to the size of precipitated particles, pressure drop, and dissipation rate. The effect of stabilizers and their concentrations have also been studied on the size of precipitated hydrophobic particles in the optimum cylindrical microchannel. Particle size distribution (PSD), SEM imaging, and zeta potential were employed to characterize the precipitated nanoparticles. The analysis of obtained data showed that the mean particle size of curcumin suspension decreased from 28.96 μm to 77.72 nm, and the specific surface area of freeze-dried powder increased from 3.88 to 17.50 m2/g after the LASP process in MCR. In particular, curcumin precipitated from PVP 0.03% and PVP 0.3% have demonstrated the smallest median particle sizes.