- Micro-encapsulation
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Micro-encapsulation is a process in which tiny particles or droplets are surrounded by a coating to give small capsules many useful properties. In a relatively simplistic form, a microcapsule is a small sphere with a uniform wall around it. The material inside the microcapsule is referred to as the core, internal phase, or fill, whereas the wall is sometimes called a shell, coating, or membrane. Most microcapsules have diameters between a few micrometers and a few millimeters.
The definition has been expanded, and includes most foods. Every class of food ingredient has been encapsulated; flavors are the most common. The technique of microencapsulation depends on the physical and chemical properties of the material to be encapsulated.[1]
Many microcapsules however bear little resemblance to these simple spheres. The core may be a crystal, a jagged adsorbent particle, an emulsion, a suspension of solids, or a suspension of smaller microcapsules. The microcapsule even may have multiple walls.
Contents
Reasons for encapsulation
The reasons for microencapsulation are countless. In some cases, the core must be isolated from its surroundings, as in isolating vitamins from the deteriorating effects of oxygen, retarding evaporation of a volatile core, improving the handling properties of a sticky material, or isolating a reactive core from chemical attack. In other cases, the objective is not to isolate the core completely but to control the rate at which it leaves the microcapsule, as in the controlled release of drugs or pesticides. The problem may be as simple as masking the taste or odor of the core, or as complex as increasing the selectivity of an adsorption or extraction process.
Techniques to manufacture microcapsules
Physical methods
Pan coating
The pan coating process, widely used in the pharmaceutical industry, is among the oldest industrial procedures for forming small, coated particles or tablets. The particles are tumbled in a pan or other device while the coating material is applied slowly.
Air-suspension coating
Micro-encapsulation by air suspension is a technique that gives improved control and flexibility compared to pan coating. Solid, particulate core material is supported in a rising air stream and spray coating applied to the air suspended particles. The design of the coating chamber is arranged so that the solid particles pass up through the coating zone, then disperse into slower moving air and sink back to the base of the coating chamber, making repeated passes through the coating zone until the desired thickness of coating is achieved. The rising airstream is often heated to control the properties of the coating, often a polymer solution.
Centrifugal extrusion
Liquids are encapsulated using a rotating extrusion head containing concentric nozzles. In this process, a jet of core liquid is surrounded by a sheath of wall solution or melt. As the jet moves through the air it breaks, owing to Rayleigh instability, into droplets of core, each coated with the wall solution. While the droplets are in flight, a molten wall may be hardened or a solvent may be evaporated from the wall solution. Since most of the droplets are within ± 10% of the mean diameter, they land in a narrow ring around the spray nozzle. Hence, if needed, the capsules can be hardened after formation by catching them in a ring-shaped hardening bath. This process is excellent for forming particles 400–2,000 µm (16–79 mils) in diameter. Since the drops are formed by the breakup of a liquid jet, the process is only suitable for liquid or slurry. A high production rate can be achieved, i.e., up to 22.5 kg (50 lb) of microcapsules can be produced per nozzle per hour per head. Heads containing 16 nozzles are available.
Vibrational Nozzle
Core-Shell encapsulation or Microgranulation (matrix-encapsulation) can be done using a laminar flow through a nozzle and an additional vibration of the nozzle or the liquid. The vibration has to be done in resonance of the Rayleigh instability and leads to very uniform droplets. The liquid can consists of any liquids with limited viscosities (0-10,000 mPa·s have been shown to work), e.g. solutions, emulsions, suspensions, melts etc. The soldification can be done according to the used gelation system with an internal gelation (e.g. sol-gel processing, melt) or an external (additional binder system, e.g. in a slurry). The process works very well for generating droplets between 100–5,000 µm (3.9–200 mils), applications for smaller and larger droplets are known. The units are deployed in industries and research mostly with capacities of 1–10,000 kg per hour (2–22,000 lb/h) at working temperatures of 20–1500 °C (68–2732 °F) (room temperature up to molten silicon). Nozzles heads are available from one up to several hundred thousand are available.
Spray–drying
Spray drying serves as a microencapsulation technique when an active material is dissolved or suspended in a melt or polymer solution and becomes trapped in the dried particle. The main advantages are the ability to handle labile materials because of the short contact time in the dryer, in addition, the operation is economical. In modern spray dryers the viscosity of the solutions to be sprayed can be as high as 300 mPa·s. Applying This technique along with the use of supercritical Carbon Dioxide, also sensitive materials like proteins can be encapsulated.
Physico-chemical methods
Ionotropic gelation
Coacervation
Chemical methods
Interfacial polycondensation
In Interfacial polycondensation, the two reactants in a polycondensation meet at an interface and react rapidly. The basis of this method is the classical Schotten-Baumann reaction between an acid chloride and a compound containing an active hydrogen atom, such as an amine or alcohol, polyesters, polyurea, polyurethane. Under the right conditions, thin flexible walls form rapidly at the interface. A solution of the pesticide and a diacid chloride are emulsified in water and an aqueous solution containing an amine and a polyfunctional isocyanate is added. Base is present to neutralize the acid formed during the reaction. Condensed polymer walls form instantaneously at the interface of the emulsion droplets.
Interfacial cross-linking
Interfacial cross-linking is derived from interfacial polycondensation, and was developed to avoid the use of toxic diamines, for pharmaceutical or cosmetic applications. In this method, the small bifunctional monomer containing active hydrogen atoms is replaced by a biosourced polymer, like a protein. When the reaction is performed at the interface of an emulsion, the acid chloride reacts with the various functional groups of the protein, leading to the formation of a membrane.[2] The cross-linked protein microcapsules are biocompatible and biodegradable, and the presence of the protein backbone renders the membrane more resistant and elastic than those obtained by interfacial polycondensation. The method is very versatile, and the properties of the microcapsules (size, porosity, degradability, mechanical resistance[3]) can be easily tuned by varying the preparation parameters. A carbohydrate can be added to the protein, for the modulation of particle biodegradability.
In-situ polymerization
In a few microencapsulation processes, the direct polymerization of a single monomer is carried out on the particle surface. In one process, e.g. Cellulose fibers are encapsulated in polyethylene while immersed in dry toluene. Usual deposition rates are about 0.5μm/min. Coating thickness ranges 0.2–75 µm (0.0079–3.0 mils). The coating is uniform, even over sharp projections.
Matrix polymerization
In a number of processes, a core material is imbedded in a polymeric matrix during formation of the particles. A simple method of this type is spray-drying, in which the particle is formed by evaporation of the solvent from the matrix material. However, the solidification of the matrix also can be caused by a chemical change.
Release methods and patterns
Even when the aim of a microencapsulation application is the isolation of the core from its surrounding, the wall must be ruptured at the time of use. Many walls are ruptured easily by pressure or shear stress, as in the case of breaking dye particles during writing to form a copy. Capsule contents may be released by melting the wall, or dissolving it under particular conditions, as in the case of an enteric drug coating.[4] In other systems, the wall is broken by solvent action, enzyme attack, chemical reaction, hydrolysis, or slow disintegration.
Microencapsulation can be used to slow the release of a drug into the body. This may permit one controlled release dose to substitute for several doses of non-encapsulated drug and also may decrease toxic side effects for some drugs by preventing high initial concentrations in the blood. There is usually a certain desired release pattern. In some cases, it is zero-order, i.e. the release rate is constant. In this case, the microcapsules deliver a fixed amount of drug per minute or hour during the period of their effectiveness. This can occur as long as a solid reservoir or dissolving drug is maintained in the microcapsule.
A more typical release pattern is first-order in which the rate decreases exponentially with time until the drug source is exhausted. In this situation, a fixed amount of drug is in solution inside the microcapsule. The concentration difference between the inside and the outside of the capsule decreases continually as the drug diffuses.
Applications of microencapsulation
The applications of micro-encapsulation are numerous. The ones mentioned below are some of the most common ones.
- Adhesives
- Carbonless copy paper
- E-paper or e-ink
- Flavors and essences
- Pesticides and herbicides
- Phase change materials
- Scratch-n-sniff
- Self-healing material such as novel plastics that can automatically repair damage:
- Textiles
- Temperature release (controlled release) in baking - see www.tastetech.co.uk
- Thermochromic dyes
- Time release technology for pharmaceuticals
- Visual indicators
References
- ^ Jackson L. S.; Lee K. (1991-01-01). "Microencapsulation and the food industry". Lebensmittel - Wissenschaft Technologie. http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=5014466. Retrieved 1991-02-02.
- ^ Edwards-Lévy F, Andry MC, Lévy MC, Determination of free amino group content of serum albumin microcapsules using trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid: effect of polycondensation pH. International Journal of Pharmaceutics, 1993, 96 (1-3), pp 85-90.
- ^ Lefebvre Y, Leclerc E, Barthès-Biesel D, Walter J, Edwards-Lévy F, Flow of artificial microcapsules in microfluidic channels: A method for determining the elastic properties of the membrane, Physics of Fluids 2008, 20 (12), art. nr. 123102.
- ^ "Medical Dictionary: Enteric coating". freedictionary.com. http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/coating%2c+enteric. Retrieved 2009-02-19.
External links
Categories:- Polymers
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