Monodisperse alginate microcapsules with oil core generated from a microfluidic device.
A microfluidic approach is developed to fabricate monodisperse alginate microcapsules with oil cores, which have the potential to be a brand-new type of vehicles for encapsulating, storing and/or transferring lipophilic drugs or active ingredients/chemicals. The alginate microcapsules with oil cores are generated in a microcapillary microfluidic device using monodisperse oil-in-water-in-oil (O/W/O) double emulsions as templates. All the as-prepared alginate microcapsules and the encapsulated oil droplets are satisfactorily spherical. Both the alginate microcapsule size and the thickness of alginate membrane can be easily controlled by modulating the dimensions of microfluidic device and the flow rates of solutions, because the outer diameter of the O/W/O double emulsion templates and the size of their inner oil cores can be controlled independently by adjusting the inner diameters of emulsification tubes and the flow rates of different solutions. The as-fabricated monodisperse micro-egg-like core-shell alginate microcapsules with oil cores may open new possibilities for engineering novel functional materials.
Ren
Ping-Wei
PW
School of Chemical Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610065, China.
Ju
Xiao-Jie
XJ
Xie
Rui
R
Chu
Liang-Yin
LY
D000464:Alginates / Q000737:chemistry*; D002214:Capsules / Q000737:chemistry*; D004655:Emulsions / Q000737:chemistry; D004867:Equipment Design; D020723:Glucuronic Acid / Q000737:chemistry; D006603:Hexuronic Acids / Q000737:chemistry; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D009821:Oils / Q000737:chemistry*; D010316:Particle Size
D000464:Alginates; D002214:Capsules; D004655:Emulsions; D006603:Hexuronic Acids; D009821:Oils; D020723:Glucuronic Acid