SBIR Phase II: Large-Scale Synthesis of Hollow Metal Nanospheres: Conversion of Batch Synthesis to Continuous Flow

The broader impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is based upon establishing a consistent, reliable source of high-quality hollow metal nanoparticles, thus enabling their commercial adoption in applications where they markedly outperform their conventional counterparts. One such application is point-of-use testing: by switching to hollow metal nanoparticles, lateral flow assays will reach higher levels of sensitivity and lower limits of detection, improving field testing for environmental contamination; detection of toxins and pathogens in agriculture; and early disease identification in clinical and veterinary care. Integration into rapid antibody and antigen tests for highly contagious diseases such as COVID-19 should prove particularly impactful, as the resulting higher sensitivity would reduce the occurrence of false negative results, thereby improving the performance (and public perception) of rapid testing. Critically, it would also improve baseline testing availability for rural and under-served populations who do not have access to PCR-equipped clinical laboratories. They can be applied to many other industries as well. This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project will advance the state of the art of continuous flow synthesis of plasmonic nanomaterials. Nanoparticle synthesis is a highly sensitive process, and obtaining high quality samples of advanced architectures has previously required labor-intensive, small-batch processes incompatible with large-scale production. Simply scaling traditional batch techniques has led to product with poor quality and prohibitive costs. This project advances a prototype reactor that has demonstrated high-throughput production of hollow plasmonic nanoparticles with control over size and color, while maintaining structural uniformity (