Active Encapsulation in Biocompatible Nanocapsules

Abstract

Co-precipitation is generally referred to the co-precipitation of two solids and is widely used to prepare active-loaded nanoparticles. Here, we demonstrate that liquid and solid could precipitate simultaneously to produce hierarchical core-shell nanocapsules that encapsulate an oil core in a polymer shell. During the co-precipitation process, the polymer preferentially deposits at the oil/water interface, wetting both the oil and water phases; the behavior is determined by the spreading coefficients and driven by the energy minimization. The technique is applicable to directly encapsulate various oil actives and avoid the use of toxic solvent or surfactant during the preparation process. The obtained core-shell nanocapsules harness the advantage of biocompatibility, precise control over the shell thickness, high loading capacity, high encapsulation efficiency, good dispersity in water and improved stability against oxidation. The applications of the nanocapsules as delivery vehicles are demonstrated by the excellent performances of natural colorant and anti-cancer drug-loaded nanocapsules. The core-shell nanocapsules with a controlled hierarchical structure are, therefore, ideal carriers for practical applications in food, cosmetic and drug delivery.Received: ((will be filled in by the editorial staff))Revised: ((will be filled in by the editorial staff)) Published online: ((will be filled in by the editorial staff)) nanocapsules (blue columns), suggesting that the nanocapsules are biocompatible and are ideal carriers for anti-cancer drugs.Hierarchical core-shell nanocapsules are developed by controlled co-precipitation and phase separation. The core-shell nanocapsules serve as excellent delivery vehicles and possess tunable shell thickness, high encapsulation efficiency, high loading capacity, good dispersity in water, improved stability and pH-triggered release, which opens a door to a range of new applications in food, cosmetic and drug delivery.

Attractive Pickering Emulsion Gels

“…Emulsion gels of one phase dispersed in another enable the design of two‐phase systems, where the microstructures and viscoelastic properties can be tailored, and provide an indispensable platform for the preparation of functional materials widely used in material science, [ 1,2 ] pharmaceutics, [ 3,4 ] and chemical engineering. [ 5–8 ] Emulsion gels combine the virtues of both emulsions and gels.…”

Interfacial Engineering of Attractive Pickering Emulsion Gel-Templated Porous Materials for Enhanced Solar Vapor Generation

“…Thermal insulation porous materials are first prepared using attractive Pickering emulsion gels (APEGs) as templates. To prepare the APEGs, carboxyl-functionalized shellac nanoparticles were obtained by flash nanoprecipitation and they were dispersed in the water phase [42][43][44], and α,ω-diamino-functionalized polystyrene molecules (NH 2 -PS-NH 2 ) were dissolved in the photopolymerizable oil. By emulsifying the water phase in the oil phase, both shellac nanoparticles and telechelic polymers tend to adsorb at the oil/water interface to decrease the interfacial tension [45].…”

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“…The main materials reported for the microencapsulation of bacteria are polymeric matrices, mainly alginates, [ 6 ] shellac, [ 7,8 ] xanthan gum, and carrageenan gum. [ 9 ] Recently, proteins have also been used for bacterial encapsulation like casein, [ 10 ] whey proteins, [ 11 ] and soy protein, [ 12 ] that in some cases are coated with maltodextrins.…”