Monodisperse emulsion droplets are useful for many applications, for example in food science, cosmetics, microreaction technology and as delivery vehicles in pharmacy. In addition, such monodisperse droplets are ideal sacrificial particles for the synthesis of microcapsules based on a templating technique. However, a combination of bulk scale synthesis and monodispersity is scarce when working with emulsions. Conventional methods typically result in polydisperse systems whereas the production rate is too low for the monodisperse droplets formed with microfluidics. Here we describe the bulk scale synthesis of monodisperse polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) droplets above 3 μm and their encapsulation in elastic, permeable shells. This is an extension of the synthesis method that was already developed in our group [1]. In addition, we show that these shells can be used in controlled release and encapsulation studies when working with various types of materials, including oils, fluorescent molecules and liquid surfactants. The amount of released oil can be highly tuned by adjusting the concentration of surfactant micelles that dissolve the oil, which also dictates the depth of the remaining, buckled microbowl. Release of liquid surfactant from the shells is found to occur spontaneously near the oil-water interface, which is most likely driven by the preferred partitioning of the released material in the oil.<br/><br/>[1] Carmen Zoldesi, Arnout Imhof, Advanced Materials (2005)

Synthesis of monodisperse, colloidal microcapsules, and their use in controlled encapsulation and release studies

249th National Meeting (2015)

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