Fabrication Of Complex Microcapsules

Microcapsules and their formation process,called microencapsulation,can bestow many special materials and properties to the internal phase,which will incorporate multifunctionalities and compensate for defects.Microcapsules act as powerful delivery vehicles for drugs because they ensure fast and safe delivery of core materials and membrane materials to their targeted locations in the gastrointestinal tract(GI).Multifunctional polymeric microcapsules with unique morphologies and properties are of significant interest due to their dual-functions and possible applications in diverse fields.Microcapsules have massive potential in medical and industrial applications,in drug delivery systems,cosmetics,food,textiles,catalysis,and energy storage media,adhesive and agricultural industry.In essence,the benefits of complex microcapsules depend on their isolating quality,sizeable inner volume,surface functionality,and tenable permeability.They possess excellent stability which is adequate for chemical loading.This work aims to achieve the following: firstly,this study examines four main methods of fabricating microcapsules.These are chemical methods,physical methods,physio-chemical methods,and microfluidic method.The study further examines the various advantages and disadvantages of the four methods.Also,the study will introduce some applications of microcapsules in drug delivery,food,pharmaceuticals and Cosmetic industries.Secondly,to fabricate complex microcapsules,which were prepared using two different methods: double emulsion solvent evaporation and microfluidic to produce empty core-shell complex microcapsules with water-soluble polymeric membrane and an oil membrane as the inner and outer shells respectively.The disclosed methods based on the production of oilcontaining microcapsules by double emulsion solvent evaporation procedure using a hand-held homogenizer.The principle of fabricating complex microcapsules in this work involves dissolving the simple microcapsules generated by the solvent evaporation technique in an oil phase to form an additional layer around the microcapsules using an improvised microfluidic device to produce the desired complex microcapsules(double –layer microcapsules).The advantages and disadvantages of the two methods used are also presented at the end of this work.Furthermore,the microparticles diameter and average size distribution were investigated and measured by the optical microscope,and the captured images were processed with the help of an image analysis software called image J.In this research work the effect of PVA content and the need for better control of PVA concentrations,are defined for future work.