Intellectual Property Law

US Patent 7521225 - Nanotube having a surfactant bilayer inner wall coating

Lipid bilayers are useful as encapsulants for drug delivery as well as for biosensing applications. This patent from North Carolina State University teaches a method of forming the bilayers on the inner surface of nanotubes offering greater stability and surface area for bilayer formation. Claim 1 reads:

1. An article of manufacture comprising:

(a) a nanotube having an inner wall portion, said nanotube having (i) an inner diameter between 10 nanometers and 500 nanometers and (ii) a length from two to one thousand times said diameter; and

(b) a bilayer coating formed on and parallel to said inner wall portion, such that only the hydrophilic portion of the bilayer coating is in contact with said inner wall portion, with said bilayer coating comprised of (i) from 10 to 90 percent by weight surfactant and (ii) from 10 to 90 percent by weight water.

Full post as published by TinytechIP on April 21, 2009 (boomark / email).