POLY 488 |
| Recently, the fabrication of polymeric microcapsules ranging from nano to micrometer with uniform characteristics has attained considerable interest, specifically for drug delivery applications. In this work, a spherical polymeric microcapsule was successfully produced in a crossed microchannel network by utilizing the flow-through droplet-based supramolecular self-assembly of a block copolymer. Atom transfer radical polymerization was employed to synthesize well-defined (PS-b-PtBA) block copolymers and further hydrolysis was done for incorporating hydrophilic property. Due to the hydrodynamic instability, the introduction of immiscible fluids forms uniform droplets in the microchannel and we extend this fluidic behavior for the fabrication of polymeric microcapsules. The solution of this copolymer was constrained to adopt spherical droplets at the T-junction of a crossed microchannel by adjusting the flow parameters and its generation behavior was extensively examined. The generation of the droplets was visualized by using a fluorescent microscope. The morphological studies of the microcapsules were carried out using a FESEM. The hollow cavity of the microcapsules was clearly observed in the SEM image obtained after O2 plasma ashing. The utilization of these microcapsules as potential encapsulants was investigated by entrapping Rhodamine B dye and the model release studies were carried out using a fluorescent microscope. |
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Nanoparticles and Microparticles: Synthesis and Applications
6:00 PM-8:00 PM, Tuesday, 12 September 2006 Moscone Center -- Hall D, Poster
Division of Polymer Chemistry |