Microfluidic Preparation of Multicompartment Microcapsules for Isolated Co-encapsulation and Controlled Release of Diverse Components

Abstract

AbstractThermo-responsive multicompartment microcapsules for co-encapsulation and controlled release of different lipophilic components are developed from multicomponent-double-emulsion templates by microfluidics. Each of the microcapsule comprises a thermo-responsive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) shell and different oil cores. The different oil cores can be used as separate compartments for co-encapsulation of distinct lipophilic components. The precise manipulation of different oil cores afforded by our microfluidic device enables the fabrication of microcapsules with select number of each core, for optimizing the encapsulation of different lipophilic components. Because of the shell shrinking during heating process due to the thermo-responsive PNIPAM network, different lipophilic components co-encapsulated in the microcapsule can be simultaneously released via an external thermal trigger. The thermo-responsive multicompartment microcapsule provides an efficient system for co-encapsulation and controlled release of multiple lipophilic components. The microfluidic preparation approach presented here shows exciting potential in the design and fabrication of functional multicompartment microcapsules for co-encapsulation techniques.